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<section id="preamble">

<h1>Measure for Measure</h1>

<section id="dramatis-personae"><h2>Dramatis Personae</h2>

<ol class="persona-group">
  <li>VINCENTIO, the Duke. </li>
  <li>ANGELO, Deputy.</li>
  <li>ESCALUS, an ancient Lord.</li>
  <li>CLAUDIO, a young gentleman.</li>
  <li>LUCIO, a fantastic.</li>
  <li>Two other gentlemen.</li>
  <li>Provost.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="persona-group" data-description="two friars.">
  <li>PETER</li>
  <li>THOMAS</li>
</ol>

<ol class="persona-group">
  <li>A Justice.</li>
  <li>VARRIUS</li>
  <li>ELBOW, a simple constable.</li>
  <li>FROTH, a foolish gentleman.</li>
  <li>POMPEY, servant to Mistress Overdone.</li>
  <li>ABHORSON, an executioner.</li>
  <li>BARNARDINE, a dissolute prisoner.</li>
  <li>ISABELLA, sister to Claudio.</li>
  <li>MARIANA, betrothed to Angelo.</li>
  <li>JULIET, beloved of Claudio.</li>
  <li>FRANCISCA, a nun.</li>
  <li>MISTRESS OVERDONE, a bawd.</li>
  <li>Lords, Officers, Citizens, Boy, and Attendant.</li>
</ol>

</section>

<div id="scene-description">SCENE  Vienna.</div>

</section>

<section class="act">

<h2>ACT I</h2>

<section class="scene">

<h3>SCENE I.  An apartment in the DUKE'S palace.</h3>

<div class="stage-direction">Enter DUKE VINCENTIO, ESCALUS, Lords and
Attendants</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>Escalus.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ESCALUS</li>
  <li>My lord.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>Of government the properties to unfold,</li>
  <li>Would seem in me to affect speech and discourse;</li>
  <li class="number">Since I am put to know that your own science</li>
  <li>Exceeds, in that, the lists of all advice</li>
  <li>My strength can give you: then no more remains,</li>
  <li>But that to your sufficiency, as your Worth is able,</li>
  <li>And let them work. The nature of our people,</li>
  <li class="number">Our city's institutions, and the terms</li>
  <li>For common justice, you're as pregnant in</li>
  <li>As art and practise hath enriched any</li>
  <li>That we remember. There is our commission,</li>
  <li>From which we would not have you warp. Call hither,</li>
  <li class="number">I say, bid come before us Angelo.</li>
  <li class="stage-direction">Exit an Attendant</li>
  <li>What figure of us think you he will bear?</li>
  <li>For you must know, we have with special soul</li>
  <li>Elected him our absence to supply,</li>
  <li>Lent him our terror, dress'd him with our love,</li>
  <li class="number">And given his deputation all the organs</li>
  <li>Of our own power: what think you of it?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ESCALUS</li>
  <li>If any in Vienna be of worth</li>
  <li>To undergo such ample grace and honour,</li>
  <li>It is Lord Angelo.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li class="number">Look where he comes.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Enter ANGELO</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANGELO</li>
  <li>Always obedient to your grace's will,</li>
  <li>I come to know your pleasure.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>Angelo,</li>
  <li>There is a kind of character in thy life,</li>
  <li class="number">That to the observer doth thy history</li>
  <li>Fully unfold. Thyself and thy belongings</li>
  <li>Are not thine own so proper as to waste</li>
  <li>Thyself upon thy virtues, they on thee.</li>
  <li>Heaven doth with us as we with torches do,</li>
  <li class="number">Not light them for themselves; for if our virtues</li>
  <li>Did not go forth of us, 'twere all alike</li>
  <li>As if we had them not. Spirits are not finely touch'd</li>
  <li>But to fine issues, nor Nature never lends</li>
  <li>The smallest scruple of her excellence</li>
  <li class="number">But, like a thrifty goddess, she determines</li>
  <li>Herself the glory of a creditor,</li>
  <li>Both thanks and use. But I do bend my speech</li>
  <li>To one that can my part in him advertise;</li>
  <li>Hold therefore, Angelo: — </li>
  <li class="number">In our remove be thou at full ourself;</li>
  <li>Mortality and mercy in Vienna</li>
  <li>Live in thy tongue and heart: old Escalus,</li>
  <li>Though first in question, is thy secondary.</li>
  <li>Take thy commission.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANGELO</li>
  <li class="number">Now, good my lord,</li>
  <li>Let there be some more test made of my metal,</li>
  <li>Before so noble and so great a figure</li>
  <li>Be stamp'd upon it.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>No more evasion:</li>
  <li class="number">We have with a leaven'd and prepared choice</li>
  <li>Proceeded to you; therefore take your honours.</li>
  <li>Our haste from hence is of so quick condition</li>
  <li>That it prefers itself and leaves unquestion'd</li>
  <li>Matters of needful value. We shall write to you,</li>
  <li class="number">As time and our concernings shall importune,</li>
  <li>How it goes with us, and do look to know</li>
  <li>What doth befall you here. So, fare you well;</li>
  <li>To the hopeful execution do I leave you</li>
  <li>Of your commissions.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANGELO</li>
  <li class="number">Yet give leave, my lord,</li>
  <li>That we may bring you something on the way.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>My haste may not admit it;</li>
  <li>Nor need you, on mine honour, have to do</li>
  <li>With any scruple; your scope is as mine own</li>
  <li class="number">So to enforce or qualify the laws</li>
  <li>As to your soul seems good. Give me your hand:</li>
  <li>I'll privily away. I love the people,</li>
  <li>But do not like to stage me to their eyes:</li>
  <li>Through it do well, I do not relish well</li>
  <li class="number">Their loud applause and Aves vehement;</li>
  <li>Nor do I think the man of safe discretion</li>
  <li>That does affect it. Once more, fare you well.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANGELO</li>
  <li>The heavens give safety to your purposes!</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ESCALUS</li>
  <li>Lead forth and bring you back in happiness!</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE</li>
  <li class="number">I thank you. Fare you well.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Exit</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ESCALUS</li>
  <li>I shall desire you, sir, to give me leave</li>
  <li>To have free speech with you; and it concerns me</li>
  <li>To look into the bottom of my place:</li>
  <li>A power I have, but of what strength and nature</li>
  <li class="number">I am not yet instructed.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANGELO</li>
  <li>'Tis so with me. Let us withdraw together,</li>
  <li>And we may soon our satisfaction have</li>
  <li>Touching that point.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ESCALUS</li>
  <li>I'll wait upon your honour.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Exeunt</div>

</section>

<section class="scene">

<h3>SCENE II.  A Street.</h3>

<div class="stage-direction">Enter LUCIO and two Gentlemen</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIO</li>
  <li>If the duke with the other dukes come not to</li>
  <li>composition with the King of Hungary, why then all</li>
  <li>the dukes fall upon the king.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">First Gentleman</li>
  <li>Heaven grant us its peace, but not the King of</li>
  <li class="number">Hungary's!</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Second Gentleman</li>
  <li>Amen.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIO</li>
  <li>Thou concludest like the sanctimonious pirate, that</li>
  <li>went to sea with the Ten Commandments, but scraped</li>
  <li>one out of the table.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Second Gentleman</li>
  <li class="number">'Thou shalt not steal'?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIO</li>
  <li>Ay, that he razed.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">First Gentleman</li>
  <li>Why, 'twas a commandment to command the captain and</li>
  <li>all the rest from their functions: they put forth</li>
  <li>to steal. There's not a soldier of us all, that, in</li>
  <li class="number">the thanksgiving before meat, do relish the petition</li>
  <li>well that prays for peace.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Second Gentleman</li>
  <li>I never heard any soldier dislike it.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIO</li>
  <li>I believe thee; for I think thou never wast where</li>
  <li>grace was said.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Second Gentleman</li>
  <li class="number">No? a dozen times at least.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">First Gentleman</li>
  <li>What, in metre?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIO</li>
  <li>In any proportion or in any language.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">First Gentleman</li>
  <li>I think, or in any religion.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIO</li>
  <li>Ay, why not? Grace is grace, despite of all</li>
  <li class="number">controversy: as, for example, thou thyself art a</li>
  <li>wicked villain, despite of all grace.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">First Gentleman</li>
  <li>Well, there went but a pair of shears between us.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIO</li>
  <li>I grant; as there may between the lists and the</li>
  <li>velvet. Thou art the list.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">First Gentleman</li>
  <li class="number">And thou the velvet: thou art good velvet; thou'rt</li>
  <li>a three-piled piece, I warrant thee: I had as lief</li>
  <li>be a list of an English kersey as be piled, as thou</li>
  <li>art piled, for a French velvet. Do I speak</li>
  <li>feelingly now?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIO</li>
  <li class="number">I think thou dost; and, indeed, with most painful</li>
  <li>feeling of thy speech: I will, out of thine own</li>
  <li>confession, learn to begin thy health; but, whilst I</li>
  <li>live, forget to drink after thee.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">First Gentleman</li>
  <li>I think I have done myself wrong, have I not?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Second Gentleman</li>
  <li class="number">Yes, that thou hast, whether thou art tainted or free.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIO</li>
  <li>Behold, behold. where Madam Mitigation comes! I</li>
  <li>have purchased as many diseases under her roof as come to — </li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Second Gentleman</li>
  <li>To what, I pray?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIO</li>
  <li>Judge.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Second Gentleman</li>
  <li class="number">To three thousand dolours a year.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">First Gentleman</li>
  <li>Ay, and more.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIO</li>
  <li>A French crown more.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">First Gentleman</li>
  <li>Thou art always figuring diseases in me; but thou</li>
  <li>art full of error; I am sound.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIO</li>
  <li class="number">Nay, not as one would say, healthy; but so sound as</li>
  <li>things that are hollow: thy bones are hollow;</li>
  <li>impiety has made a feast of thee.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Enter MISTRESS OVERDONE</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">First Gentleman</li>
  <li>How now! which of your hips has the most profound sciatica?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">MISTRESS OVERDONE</li>
  <li>Well, well; there's one yonder arrested and carried</li>
  <li class="number">to prison was worth five thousand of you all.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Second Gentleman</li>
  <li>Who's that, I pray thee?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">MISTRESS OVERDONE</li>
  <li>Marry, sir, that's Claudio, Signior Claudio.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">First Gentleman</li>
  <li>Claudio to prison? 'tis not so.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">MISTRESS OVERDONE</li>
  <li>Nay, but I know 'tis so: I saw him arrested, saw</li>
  <li class="number">him carried away; and, which is more, within these</li>
  <li>three days his head to be chopped off.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIO</li>
  <li>But, after all this fooling, I would not have it so.</li>
  <li>Art thou sure of this?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">MISTRESS OVERDONE</li>
  <li>I am too sure of it: and it is for getting Madam</li>
  <li class="number">Julietta with child.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIO</li>
  <li>Believe me, this may be: he promised to meet me two</li>
  <li>hours since, and he was ever precise in</li>
  <li>promise-keeping.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Second Gentleman</li>
  <li>Besides, you know, it draws something near to the</li>
  <li class="number">speech we had to such a purpose.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">First Gentleman</li>
  <li>But, most of all, agreeing with the proclamation.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIO</li>
  <li>Away! let's go learn the truth of it.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Exeunt LUCIO and Gentlemen</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">MISTRESS OVERDONE</li>
  <li>Thus, what with the war, what with the sweat, what</li>
  <li>with the gallows and what with poverty, I am</li>
  <li class="number">custom-shrunk.</li>
  <li class="stage-direction">Enter POMPEY</li>
  <li>How now! what's the news with you?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">POMPEY</li>
  <li>Yonder man is carried to prison.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">MISTRESS OVERDONE</li>
  <li>Well; what has he done?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">POMPEY</li>
  <li>A woman.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">MISTRESS OVERDONE</li>
  <li class="number">But what's his offence?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">POMPEY</li>
  <li>Groping for trouts in a peculiar river.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">MISTRESS OVERDONE</li>
  <li>What, is there a maid with child by him?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">POMPEY</li>
  <li>No, but there's a woman with maid by him. You have</li>
  <li>not heard of the proclamation, have you?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">MISTRESS OVERDONE</li>
  <li class="number">What proclamation, man?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">POMPEY</li>
  <li>All houses in the suburbs of Vienna must be plucked down.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">MISTRESS OVERDONE</li>
  <li>And what shall become of those in the city?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">POMPEY</li>
  <li>They shall stand for seed: they had gone down too,</li>
  <li>but that a wise burgher put in for them.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">MISTRESS OVERDONE</li>
  <li class="number">But shall all our houses of resort in the suburbs be</li>
  <li>pulled down?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">POMPEY</li>
  <li>To the ground, mistress.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">MISTRESS OVERDONE</li>
  <li>Why, here's a change indeed in the commonwealth!</li>
  <li>What shall become of me?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">POMPEY</li>
  <li class="number">Come; fear you not: good counsellors lack no</li>
  <li>clients: though you change your place, you need not</li>
  <li>change your trade; I'll be your tapster still.</li>
  <li>Courage! there will be pity taken on you: you that</li>
  <li>have worn your eyes almost out in the service, you</li>
  <li class="number">will be considered.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">MISTRESS OVERDONE</li>
  <li>What's to do here, Thomas tapster? let's withdraw.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">POMPEY</li>
  <li>Here comes Signior Claudio, led by the provost to</li>
  <li>prison; and there's Madam Juliet.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Exeunt</div>

<div class="stage-direction">Enter Provost, CLAUDIO, JULIET, and Officers</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li>Fellow, why dost thou show me thus to the world?</li>
  <li class="number">Bear me to prison, where I am committed.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Provost</li>
  <li>I do it not in evil disposition,</li>
  <li>But from Lord Angelo by special charge.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li>Thus can the demigod Authority</li>
  <li>Make us pay down for our offence by weight</li>
  <li class="number">The words of heaven; on whom it will, it will;</li>
  <li>On whom it will not, so; yet still 'tis just.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Re-enter LUCIO and two Gentlemen</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIO</li>
  <li>Why, how now, Claudio! whence comes this restraint?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li>From too much liberty, my Lucio, liberty:</li>
  <li>As surfeit is the father of much fast,</li>
  <li class="number">So every scope by the immoderate use</li>
  <li>Turns to restraint. Our natures do pursue,</li>
  <li>Like rats that ravin down their proper bane,</li>
  <li>A thirsty evil; and when we drink we die.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIO</li>
  <li>If could speak so wisely under an arrest, I would</li>
  <li class="number">send for certain of my creditors: and yet, to say</li>
  <li>the truth, I had as lief have the foppery of freedom</li>
  <li>as the morality of imprisonment. What's thy</li>
  <li>offence, Claudio?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li>What but to speak of would offend again.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIO</li>
  <li class="number">What, is't murder?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li>No.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIO</li>
  <li>Lechery?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li>Call it so.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Provost</li>
  <li>Away, sir! you must go.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li class="number">One word, good friend. Lucio, a word with you.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIO</li>
  <li>A hundred, if they'll do you any good.</li>
  <li>Is lechery so look'd after?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li>Thus stands it with me: upon a true contract</li>
  <li>I got possession of Julietta's bed:</li>
  <li class="number">You know the lady; she is fast my wife,</li>
  <li>Save that we do the denunciation lack</li>
  <li>Of outward order: this we came not to,</li>
  <li>Only for propagation of a dower</li>
  <li>Remaining in the coffer of her friends,</li>
  <li class="number">From whom we thought it meet to hide our love</li>
  <li>Till time had made them for us. But it chances</li>
  <li>The stealth of our most mutual entertainment</li>
  <li>With character too gross is writ on Juliet.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIO</li>
  <li>With child, perhaps?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li class="number">Unhappily, even so.</li>
  <li>And the new deputy now for the duke — </li>
  <li>Whether it be the fault and glimpse of newness,</li>
  <li>Or whether that the body public be</li>
  <li>A horse whereon the governor doth ride,</li>
  <li class="number">Who, newly in the seat, that it may know</li>
  <li>He can command, lets it straight feel the spur;</li>
  <li>Whether the tyranny be in his place,</li>
  <li>Or in his emmence that fills it up,</li>
  <li>I stagger in: — but this new governor</li>
  <li class="number">Awakes me all the enrolled penalties</li>
  <li>Which have, like unscour'd armour, hung by the wall</li>
  <li>So long that nineteen zodiacs have gone round</li>
  <li>And none of them been worn; and, for a name,</li>
  <li>Now puts the drowsy and neglected act</li>
  <li class="number">Freshly on me: 'tis surely for a name.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIO</li>
  <li>I warrant it is: and thy head stands so tickle on</li>
  <li>thy shoulders that a milkmaid, if she be in love,</li>
  <li>may sigh it off. Send after the duke and appeal to</li>
  <li>him.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li class="number">I have done so, but he's not to be found.</li>
  <li>I prithee, Lucio, do me this kind service:</li>
  <li>This day my sister should the cloister enter</li>
  <li>And there receive her approbation:</li>
  <li>Acquaint her with the danger of my state:</li>
  <li class="number">Implore her, in my voice, that she make friends</li>
  <li>To the strict deputy; bid herself assay him:</li>
  <li>I have great hope in that; for in her youth</li>
  <li>There is a prone and speechless dialect,</li>
  <li>Such as move men; beside, she hath prosperous art</li>
  <li class="number">When she will play with reason and discourse,</li>
  <li>And well she can persuade.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIO</li>
  <li>I pray she may; as well for the encouragement of the</li>
  <li>like, which else would stand under grievous</li>
  <li>imposition, as for the enjoying of thy life, who I</li>
  <li class="number">would be sorry should be thus foolishly lost at a</li>
  <li>game of tick-tack. I'll to her.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li>I thank you, good friend Lucio.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIO</li>
  <li>Within two hours.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li>Come, officer, away!</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Exeunt</div>

</section>

<section class="scene">

<h3>SCENE III.  A monastery.</h3>

<div class="stage-direction">Enter DUKE VINCENTIO and FRIAR THOMAS</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>No, holy father; throw away that thought;</li>
  <li>Believe not that the dribbling dart of love</li>
  <li>Can pierce a complete bosom. Why I desire thee</li>
  <li>To give me secret harbour, hath a purpose</li>
  <li class="number">More grave and wrinkled than the aims and ends</li>
  <li>Of burning youth.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">FRIAR THOMAS</li>
  <li>May your grace speak of it?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>My holy sir, none better knows than you</li>
  <li>How I have ever loved the life removed</li>
  <li class="number">And held in idle price to haunt assemblies</li>
  <li>Where youth, and cost, and witless bravery keeps.</li>
  <li>I have deliver'd to Lord Angelo,</li>
  <li>A man of stricture and firm abstinence,</li>
  <li>My absolute power and place here in Vienna,</li>
  <li class="number">And he supposes me travell'd to Poland;</li>
  <li>For so I have strew'd it in the common ear,</li>
  <li>And so it is received. Now, pious sir,</li>
  <li>You will demand of me why I do this?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">FRIAR THOMAS</li>
  <li>Gladly, my lord.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li class="number">We have strict statutes and most biting laws.</li>
  <li>The needful bits and curbs to headstrong weeds,</li>
  <li>Which for this nineteen years we have let slip;</li>
  <li>Even like an o'ergrown lion in a cave,</li>
  <li>That goes not out to prey. Now, as fond fathers,</li>
  <li class="number">Having bound up the threatening twigs of birch,</li>
  <li>Only to stick it in their children's sight</li>
  <li>For terror, not to use, in time the rod</li>
  <li>Becomes more mock'd than fear'd; so our decrees,</li>
  <li>Dead to infliction, to themselves are dead;</li>
  <li class="number">And liberty plucks justice by the nose;</li>
  <li>The baby beats the nurse, and quite athwart</li>
  <li>Goes all decorum.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">FRIAR THOMAS</li>
  <li>It rested in your grace</li>
  <li>To unloose this tied-up justice when you pleased:</li>
  <li class="number">And it in you more dreadful would have seem'd</li>
  <li>Than in Lord Angelo.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>I do fear, too dreadful:</li>
  <li>Sith 'twas my fault to give the people scope,</li>
  <li>'Twould be my tyranny to strike and gall them</li>
  <li class="number">For what I bid them do: for we bid this be done,</li>
  <li>When evil deeds have their permissive pass</li>
  <li>And not the punishment. Therefore indeed, my father,</li>
  <li>I have on Angelo imposed the office;</li>
  <li>Who may, in the ambush of my name, strike home,</li>
  <li class="number">And yet my nature never in the fight</li>
  <li>To do in slander. And to behold his sway,</li>
  <li>I will, as 'twere a brother of your order,</li>
  <li>Visit both prince and people: therefore, I prithee,</li>
  <li>Supply me with the habit and instruct me</li>
  <li class="number">How I may formally in person bear me</li>
  <li>Like a true friar. More reasons for this action</li>
  <li>At our more leisure shall I render you;</li>
  <li>Only, this one: Lord Angelo is precise;</li>
  <li>Stands at a guard with envy; scarce confesses</li>
  <li class="number">That his blood flows, or that his appetite</li>
  <li>Is more to bread than stone: hence shall we see,</li>
  <li>If power change purpose, what our seemers be.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Exeunt</div>

</section>

<section class="scene">

<h3>SCENE IV.  A nunnery.</h3>

<div class="stage-direction">Enter ISABELLA and FRANCISCA</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ISABELLA</li>
  <li>And have you nuns no farther privileges?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">FRANCISCA</li>
  <li>Are not these large enough?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ISABELLA</li>
  <li>Yes, truly; I speak not as desiring more;</li>
  <li>But rather wishing a more strict restraint</li>
  <li class="number">Upon the sisterhood, the votarists of Saint Clare.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIO</li>
  <li>Within  Ho! Peace be in this place!</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ISABELLA</li>
  <li>Who's that which calls?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">FRANCISCA</li>
  <li>It is a man's voice. Gentle Isabella,</li>
  <li>Turn you the key, and know his business of him;</li>
  <li class="number">You may, I may not; you are yet unsworn.</li>
  <li>When you have vow'd, you must not speak with men</li>
  <li>But in the presence of the prioress:</li>
  <li>Then, if you speak, you must not show your face,</li>
  <li>Or, if you show your face, you must not speak.</li>
  <li class="number">He calls again; I pray you, answer him.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Exit</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ISABELLA</li>
  <li>Peace and prosperity! Who is't that calls</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Enter LUCIO</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIO</li>
  <li>Hail, virgin, if you be, as those cheek-roses</li>
  <li>Proclaim you are no less! Can you so stead me</li>
  <li>As bring me to the sight of Isabella,</li>
  <li class="number">A novice of this place and the fair sister</li>
  <li>To her unhappy brother Claudio?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ISABELLA</li>
  <li>Why 'her unhappy brother'? let me ask,</li>
  <li>The rather for I now must make you know</li>
  <li>I am that Isabella and his sister.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIO</li>
  <li class="number">Gentle and fair, your brother kindly greets you:</li>
  <li>Not to be weary with you, he's in prison.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ISABELLA</li>
  <li>Woe me! for what?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIO</li>
  <li>For that which, if myself might be his judge,</li>
  <li>He should receive his punishment in thanks:</li>
  <li class="number">He hath got his friend with child.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ISABELLA</li>
  <li>Sir, make me not your story.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIO</li>
  <li>It is true.</li>
  <li>I would not — though 'tis my familiar sin</li>
  <li>With maids to seem the lapwing and to jest,</li>
  <li class="number">Tongue far from heart — play with all virgins so:</li>
  <li>I hold you as a thing ensky'd and sainted.</li>
  <li>By your renouncement an immortal spirit,</li>
  <li>And to be talk'd with in sincerity,</li>
  <li>As with a saint.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ISABELLA</li>
  <li class="number">You do blaspheme the good in mocking me.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIO</li>
  <li>Do not believe it. Fewness and truth, 'tis thus:</li>
  <li>Your brother and his lover have embraced:</li>
  <li>As those that feed grow full, as blossoming time</li>
  <li>That from the seedness the bare fallow brings</li>
  <li class="number">To teeming foison, even so her plenteous womb</li>
  <li>Expresseth his full tilth and husbandry.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ISABELLA</li>
  <li>Some one with child by him? My cousin Juliet?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIO</li>
  <li>Is she your cousin?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ISABELLA</li>
  <li>Adoptedly; as school-maids change their names</li>
  <li class="number">By vain though apt affection.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIO</li>
  <li>She it is.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ISABELLA</li>
  <li>O, let him marry her.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIO</li>
  <li>This is the point.</li>
  <li>The duke is very strangely gone from hence;</li>
  <li class="number">Bore many gentlemen, myself being one,</li>
  <li>In hand and hope of action: but we do learn</li>
  <li>By those that know the very nerves of state,</li>
  <li>His givings-out were of an infinite distance</li>
  <li>From his true-meant design. Upon his place,</li>
  <li class="number">And with full line of his authority,</li>
  <li>Governs Lord Angelo; a man whose blood</li>
  <li>Is very snow-broth; one who never feels</li>
  <li>The wanton stings and motions of the sense,</li>
  <li>But doth rebate and blunt his natural edge</li>
  <li class="number">With profits of the mind, study and fast.</li>
  <li>He — to give fear to use and liberty,</li>
  <li>Which have for long run by the hideous law,</li>
  <li>As mice by lions — hath pick'd out an act,</li>
  <li>Under whose heavy sense your brother's life</li>
  <li class="number">Falls into forfeit: he arrests him on it;</li>
  <li>And follows close the rigour of the statute,</li>
  <li>To make him an example. All hope is gone,</li>
  <li>Unless you have the grace by your fair prayer</li>
  <li>To soften Angelo: and that's my pith of business</li>
  <li class="number">'Twixt you and your poor brother.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ISABELLA</li>
  <li>Doth he so seek his life?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIO</li>
  <li>Has censured him</li>
  <li>Already; and, as I hear, the provost hath</li>
  <li>A warrant for his execution.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ISABELLA</li>
  <li class="number">Alas! what poor ability's in me</li>
  <li>To do him good?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIO</li>
  <li>Assay the power you have.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ISABELLA</li>
  <li>My power? Alas, I doubt — </li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIO</li>
  <li>Our doubts are traitors</li>
  <li class="number">And make us lose the good we oft might win</li>
  <li>By fearing to attempt. Go to Lord Angelo,</li>
  <li>And let him learn to know, when maidens sue,</li>
  <li>Men give like gods; but when they weep and kneel,</li>
  <li>All their petitions are as freely theirs</li>
  <li class="number">As they themselves would owe them.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ISABELLA</li>
  <li>I'll see what I can do.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIO</li>
  <li>But speedily.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ISABELLA</li>
  <li>I will about it straight;</li>
  <li>No longer staying but to give the mother</li>
  <li class="number">Notice of my affair. I humbly thank you:</li>
  <li>Commend me to my brother: soon at night</li>
  <li>I'll send him certain word of my success.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIO</li>
  <li>I take my leave of you.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ISABELLA</li>
  <li>Good sir, adieu.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Exeunt</div>

</section>

</section>

<section class="act">

<h2>ACT II</h2>

<section class="scene">

<h3>SCENE I.  A hall In ANGELO's house.</h3>

<div class="stage-direction">Enter ANGELO, ESCALUS, and a Justice, Provost,
Officers, and other Attendants, behind</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANGELO</li>
  <li>We must not make a scarecrow of the law,</li>
  <li>Setting it up to fear the birds of prey,</li>
  <li>And let it keep one shape, till custom make it</li>
  <li>Their perch and not their terror.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ESCALUS</li>
  <li class="number">Ay, but yet</li>
  <li>Let us be keen, and rather cut a little,</li>
  <li>Than fall, and bruise to death. Alas, this gentleman</li>
  <li>Whom I would save, had a most noble father!</li>
  <li>Let but your honour know,</li>
  <li class="number">Whom I believe to be most strait in virtue,</li>
  <li>That, in the working of your own affections,</li>
  <li>Had time cohered with place or place with wishing,</li>
  <li>Or that the resolute acting of your blood</li>
  <li>Could have attain'd the effect of your own purpose,</li>
  <li class="number">Whether you had not sometime in your life</li>
  <li>Err'd in this point which now you censure him,</li>
  <li>And pull'd the law upon you.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANGELO</li>
  <li>'Tis one thing to be tempted, Escalus,</li>
  <li>Another thing to fall. I not deny,</li>
  <li class="number">The jury, passing on the prisoner's life,</li>
  <li>May in the sworn twelve have a thief or two</li>
  <li>Guiltier than him they try. What's open made to justice,</li>
  <li>That justice seizes: what know the laws</li>
  <li>That thieves do pass on thieves? 'Tis very pregnant,</li>
  <li class="number">The jewel that we find, we stoop and take't</li>
  <li>Because we see it; but what we do not see</li>
  <li>We tread upon, and never think of it.</li>
  <li>You may not so extenuate his offence</li>
  <li>For I have had such faults; but rather tell me,</li>
  <li class="number">When I, that censure him, do so offend,</li>
  <li>Let mine own judgment pattern out my death,</li>
  <li>And nothing come in partial. Sir, he must die.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ESCALUS</li>
  <li>Be it as your wisdom will.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANGELO</li>
  <li>Where is the provost?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Provost</li>
  <li class="number">Here, if it like your honour.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANGELO</li>
  <li>See that Claudio</li>
  <li>Be executed by nine to-morrow morning:</li>
  <li>Bring him his confessor, let him be prepared;</li>
  <li>For that's the utmost of his pilgrimage.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Exit Provost</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ESCALUS</li>
  <li class="number">Aside  Well, heaven forgive him! and forgive us all!</li>
  <li>Some rise by sin, and some by virtue fall:</li>
  <li>Some run from brakes of ice, and answer none:</li>
  <li>And some condemned for a fault alone.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Enter ELBOW, and Officers with FROTH and POMPEY</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ELBOW</li>
  <li>Come, bring them away: if these be good people in</li>
  <li class="number">a commonweal that do nothing but use their abuses in</li>
  <li>common houses, I know no law: bring them away.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANGELO</li>
  <li>How now, sir! What's your name? and what's the matter?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ELBOW</li>
  <li>If it Please your honour, I am the poor duke's</li>
  <li>constable, and my name is Elbow: I do lean upon</li>
  <li class="number">justice, sir, and do bring in here before your good</li>
  <li>honour two notorious benefactors.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANGELO</li>
  <li>Benefactors? Well; what benefactors are they? are</li>
  <li>they not malefactors?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ELBOW</li>
  <li>If it? please your honour, I know not well what they</li>
  <li class="number">are: but precise villains they are, that I am sure</li>
  <li>of; and void of all profanation in the world that</li>
  <li>good Christians ought to have.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ESCALUS</li>
  <li>This comes off well; here's a wise officer.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANGELO</li>
  <li>Go to: what quality are they of? Elbow is your</li>
  <li class="number">name? why dost thou not speak, Elbow?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">POMPEY</li>
  <li>He cannot, sir; he's out at elbow.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANGELO</li>
  <li>What are you, sir?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ELBOW</li>
  <li>He, sir! a tapster, sir; parcel-bawd; one that</li>
  <li>serves a bad woman; whose house, sir, was, as they</li>
  <li class="number">say, plucked down in the suburbs; and now she</li>
  <li>professes a hot-house, which, I think, is a very ill house too.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ESCALUS</li>
  <li>How know you that?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ELBOW</li>
  <li>My wife, sir, whom I detest before heaven and your honour —  </li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ESCALUS</li>
  <li>How? thy wife?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ELBOW</li>
  <li class="number">Ay, sir; whom, I thank heaven, is an honest woman —  </li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ESCALUS</li>
  <li>Dost thou detest her therefore?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ELBOW</li>
  <li>I say, sir, I will detest myself also, as well as</li>
  <li>she, that this house, if it be not a bawd's house,</li>
  <li>it is pity of her life, for it is a naughty house.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ESCALUS</li>
  <li class="number">How dost thou know that, constable?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ELBOW</li>
  <li>Marry, sir, by my wife; who, if she had been a woman</li>
  <li>cardinally given, might have been accused in</li>
  <li>fornication, adultery, and all uncleanliness there.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ESCALUS</li>
  <li>By the woman's means?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ELBOW</li>
  <li class="number">Ay, sir, by Mistress Overdone's means: but as she</li>
  <li>spit in his face, so she defied him.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">POMPEY</li>
  <li>Sir, if it please your honour, this is not so.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ELBOW</li>
  <li>Prove it before these varlets here, thou honourable</li>
  <li>man; prove it.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ESCALUS</li>
  <li class="number">Do you hear how he misplaces?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">POMPEY</li>
  <li>Sir, she came in great with child; and longing,</li>
  <li>saving your honour's reverence, for stewed prunes;</li>
  <li>sir, we had but two in the house, which at that very</li>
  <li>distant time stood, as it were, in a fruit-dish, a</li>
  <li class="number">dish of some three-pence; your honours have seen</li>
  <li>such dishes; they are not China dishes, but very</li>
  <li>good dishes —  </li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ESCALUS</li>
  <li>Go to, go to: no matter for the dish, sir.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">POMPEY</li>
  <li>No, indeed, sir, not of a pin; you are therein in</li>
  <li class="number">the right: but to the point. As I say, this</li>
  <li>Mistress Elbow, being, as I say, with child, and</li>
  <li>being great-bellied, and longing, as I said, for</li>
  <li>prunes; and having but two in the dish, as I said,</li>
  <li>Master Froth here, this very man, having eaten the</li>
  <li class="number">rest, as I said, and, as I say, paying for them very</li>
  <li>honestly; for, as you know, Master Froth, I could</li>
  <li>not give you three-pence again.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">FROTH</li>
  <li>No, indeed.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">POMPEY</li>
  <li>Very well: you being then, if you be remembered,</li>
  <li class="number">cracking the stones of the foresaid prunes —  </li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">FROTH</li>
  <li>Ay, so I did indeed.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">POMPEY</li>
  <li>Why, very well; I telling you then, if you be</li>
  <li>remembered, that such a one and such a one were past</li>
  <li>cure of the thing you wot of, unless they kept very</li>
  <li class="number">good diet, as I told you —  </li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">FROTH</li>
  <li>All this is true.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">POMPEY</li>
  <li>Why, very well, then —  </li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ESCALUS</li>
  <li>Come, you are a tedious fool: to the purpose. What</li>
  <li>was done to Elbow's wife, that he hath cause to</li>
  <li class="number">complain of? Come me to what was done to her.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">POMPEY</li>
  <li>Sir, your honour cannot come to that yet.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ESCALUS</li>
  <li>No, sir, nor I mean it not.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">POMPEY</li>
  <li>Sir, but you shall come to it, by your honour's</li>
  <li>leave. And, I beseech you, look into Master Froth</li>
  <li class="number">here, sir; a man of four-score pound a year; whose</li>
  <li>father died at Hallowmas: was't not at Hallowmas,</li>
  <li>Master Froth?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">FROTH</li>
  <li>All-hallond eve.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">POMPEY</li>
  <li>Why, very well; I hope here be truths. He, sir,</li>
  <li class="number">sitting, as I say, in a lower chair, sir; 'twas in</li>
  <li>the Bunch of Grapes, where indeed you have a delight</li>
  <li>to sit, have you not?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">FROTH</li>
  <li>I have so; because it is an open room and good for winter.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">POMPEY</li>
  <li>Why, very well, then; I hope here be truths.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANGELO</li>
  <li class="number">This will last out a night in Russia,</li>
  <li>When nights are longest there: I'll take my leave.</li>
  <li>And leave you to the hearing of the cause;</li>
  <li>Hoping you'll find good cause to whip them all.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ESCALUS</li>
  <li>I think no less. Good morrow to your lordship.</li>
  <li class="stage-direction">Exit ANGELO</li>
  <li class="number">Now, sir, come on: what was done to Elbow's wife, once more?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">POMPEY</li>
  <li>Once, sir? there was nothing done to her once.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ELBOW</li>
  <li>I beseech you, sir, ask him what this man did to my wife.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">POMPEY</li>
  <li>I beseech your honour, ask me.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ESCALUS</li>
  <li>Well, sir; what did this gentleman to her?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">POMPEY</li>
  <li class="number">I beseech you, sir, look in this gentleman's face.</li>
  <li>Good Master Froth, look upon his honour; 'tis for a</li>
  <li>good purpose. Doth your honour mark his face?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ESCALUS</li>
  <li>Ay, sir, very well.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">POMPEY</li>
  <li>Nay; I beseech you, mark it well.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ESCALUS</li>
  <li class="number">Well, I do so.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">POMPEY</li>
  <li>Doth your honour see any harm in his face?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ESCALUS</li>
  <li>Why, no.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">POMPEY</li>
  <li>I'll be supposed upon a book, his face is the worst</li>
  <li>thing about him. Good, then; if his face be the</li>
  <li class="number">worst thing about him, how could Master Froth do the</li>
  <li>constable's wife any harm? I would know that of</li>
  <li>your honour.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ESCALUS</li>
  <li>He's in the right. Constable, what say you to it?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ELBOW</li>
  <li>First, an it like you, the house is a respected</li>
  <li class="number">house; next, this is a respected fellow; and his</li>
  <li>mistress is a respected woman.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">POMPEY</li>
  <li>By this hand, sir, his wife is a more respected</li>
  <li>person than any of us all.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ELBOW</li>
  <li>Varlet, thou liest; thou liest, wicked varlet! the</li>
  <li class="number">time has yet to come that she was ever respected</li>
  <li>with man, woman, or child.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">POMPEY</li>
  <li>Sir, she was respected with him before he married with her.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ESCALUS</li>
  <li>Which is the wiser here? Justice or Iniquity? Is</li>
  <li>this true?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ELBOW</li>
  <li class="number">O thou caitiff! O thou varlet! O thou wicked</li>
  <li>Hannibal! I respected with her before I was married</li>
  <li>to her! If ever I was respected with her, or she</li>
  <li>with me, let not your worship think me the poor</li>
  <li>duke's officer. Prove this, thou wicked Hannibal, or</li>
  <li class="number">I'll have mine action of battery on thee.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ESCALUS</li>
  <li>If he took you a box o' the ear, you might have your</li>
  <li>action of slander too.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ELBOW</li>
  <li>Marry, I thank your good worship for it. What is't</li>
  <li>your worship's pleasure I shall do with this wicked caitiff?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ESCALUS</li>
  <li class="number">Truly, officer, because he hath some offences in him</li>
  <li>that thou wouldst discover if thou couldst, let him</li>
  <li>continue in his courses till thou knowest what they</li>
  <li>are.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ELBOW</li>
  <li>Marry, I thank your worship for it. Thou seest, thou</li>
  <li class="number">wicked varlet, now, what's come upon thee: thou art</li>
  <li>to continue now, thou varlet; thou art to continue.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ESCALUS</li>
  <li>Where were you born, friend?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">FROTH</li>
  <li>Here in Vienna, sir.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ESCALUS</li>
  <li>Are you of fourscore pounds a year?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">FROTH</li>
  <li class="number">Yes, an't please you, sir.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ESCALUS</li>
  <li>So. What trade are you of, sir?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">POMPHEY</li>
  <li>Tapster; a poor widow's tapster.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ESCALUS</li>
  <li>Your mistress' name?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">POMPHEY</li>
  <li>Mistress Overdone.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ESCALUS</li>
  <li class="number">Hath she had any more than one husband?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">POMPEY</li>
  <li>Nine, sir; Overdone by the last.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ESCALUS</li>
  <li>Nine! Come hither to me, Master Froth. Master</li>
  <li>Froth, I would not have you acquainted with</li>
  <li>tapsters: they will draw you, Master Froth, and you</li>
  <li class="number">will hang them. Get you gone, and let me hear no</li>
  <li>more of you.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">FROTH</li>
  <li>I thank your worship. For mine own part, I never</li>
  <li>come into any room in a tap-house, but I am drawn</li>
  <li>in.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ESCALUS</li>
  <li class="number">Well, no more of it, Master Froth: farewell.</li>
  <li class="stage-direction">Exit FROTH</li>
  <li>Come you hither to me, Master tapster. What's your</li>
  <li>name, Master tapster?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">POMPEY</li>
  <li>Pompey.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ESCALUS</li>
  <li>What else?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">POMPEY</li>
  <li class="number">Bum, sir.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ESCALUS</li>
  <li>Troth, and your bum is the greatest thing about you;</li>
  <li>so that in the beastliest sense you are Pompey the</li>
  <li>Great. Pompey, you are partly a bawd, Pompey,</li>
  <li>howsoever you colour it in being a tapster, are you</li>
  <li class="number">not? come, tell me true: it shall be the better for you.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">POMPEY</li>
  <li>Truly, sir, I am a poor fellow that would live.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ESCALUS</li>
  <li>How would you live, Pompey? by being a bawd? What</li>
  <li>do you think of the trade, Pompey? is it a lawful trade?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">POMPEY</li>
  <li>If the law would allow it, sir.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ESCALUS</li>
  <li class="number">But the law will not allow it, Pompey; nor it shall</li>
  <li>not be allowed in Vienna.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">POMPEY</li>
  <li>Does your worship mean to geld and splay all the</li>
  <li>youth of the city?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ESCALUS</li>
  <li>No, Pompey.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">POMPEY</li>
  <li class="number">Truly, sir, in my poor opinion, they will to't then.</li>
  <li>If your worship will take order for the drabs and</li>
  <li>the knaves, you need not to fear the bawds.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ESCALUS</li>
  <li>There are pretty orders beginning, I can tell you:</li>
  <li>it is but heading and hanging.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">POMPEY</li>
  <li class="number">If you head and hang all that offend that way but</li>
  <li>for ten year together, you'll be glad to give out a</li>
  <li>commission for more heads: if this law hold in</li>
  <li>Vienna ten year, I'll rent the fairest house in it</li>
  <li>after three-pence a bay: if you live to see this</li>
  <li class="number">come to pass, say Pompey told you so.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ESCALUS</li>
  <li>Thank you, good Pompey; and, in requital of your</li>
  <li>prophecy, hark you: I advise you, let me not find</li>
  <li>you before me again upon any complaint whatsoever;</li>
  <li>no, not for dwelling where you do: if I do, Pompey,</li>
  <li class="number">I shall beat you to your tent, and prove a shrewd</li>
  <li>Caesar to you; in plain dealing, Pompey, I shall</li>
  <li>have you whipt: so, for this time, Pompey, fare you well.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">POMPEY</li>
  <li>I thank your worship for your good counsel:</li>
  <li class="stage-direction">Aside</li>
  <li>but I shall follow it as the flesh and fortune shall</li>
  <li class="number">better determine.</li>
  <li>Whip me? No, no; let carman whip his jade:</li>
  <li>The valiant heart is not whipt out of his trade.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Exit</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ESCALUS</li>
  <li>Come hither to me, Master Elbow; come hither, Master</li>
  <li>constable. How long have you been in this place of constable?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ELBOW</li>
  <li class="number">Seven year and a half, sir.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ESCALUS</li>
  <li>I thought, by your readiness in the office, you had</li>
  <li>continued in it some time. You say, seven years together?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ELBOW</li>
  <li>And a half, sir.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ESCALUS</li>
  <li>Alas, it hath been great pains to you. They do you</li>
  <li class="number">wrong to put you so oft upon 't: are there not men</li>
  <li>in your ward sufficient to serve it?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ELBOW</li>
  <li>Faith, sir, few of any wit in such matters: as they</li>
  <li>are chosen, they are glad to choose me for them; I</li>
  <li>do it for some piece of money, and go through with</li>
  <li class="number">all.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ESCALUS</li>
  <li>Look you bring me in the names of some six or seven,</li>
  <li>the most sufficient of your parish.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ELBOW</li>
  <li>To your worship's house, sir?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ESCALUS</li>
  <li>To my house. Fare you well.</li>
  <li class="stage-direction">Exit ELBOW</li>
  <li class="number">What's o'clock, think you?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Justice</li>
  <li>Eleven, sir.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ESCALUS</li>
  <li>I pray you home to dinner with me.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Justice</li>
  <li>I humbly thank you.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ESCALUS</li>
  <li>It grieves me for the death of Claudio;</li>
  <li class="number">But there's no remedy.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Justice</li>
  <li>Lord Angelo is severe.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ESCALUS</li>
  <li>It is but needful:</li>
  <li>Mercy is not itself, that oft looks so;</li>
  <li>Pardon is still the nurse of second woe:</li>
  <li class="number">But yet —  poor Claudio! There is no remedy.</li>
  <li>Come, sir.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Exeunt</div>

</section>

<section class="scene">

<h3>SCENE II.  Another room in the same.</h3>

<div class="stage-direction">Enter Provost and a Servant</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Servant</li>
  <li>He's hearing of a cause; he will come straight</li>
  <li>I'll tell him of you.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Provost</li>
  <li>Pray you, do.</li>
  <li class="stage-direction">Exit Servant</li>
  <li>I'll know</li>
  <li class="number">His pleasure; may be he will relent. Alas,</li>
  <li>He hath but as offended in a dream!</li>
  <li>All sects, all ages smack of this vice; and he</li>
  <li>To die for't!</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Enter ANGELO</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANGELO</li>
  <li>Now, what's the matter. Provost?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Provost</li>
  <li class="number">Is it your will Claudio shall die tomorrow?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANGELO</li>
  <li>Did not I tell thee yea? hadst thou not order?</li>
  <li>Why dost thou ask again?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Provost</li>
  <li>Lest I might be too rash:</li>
  <li>Under your good correction, I have seen,</li>
  <li class="number">When, after execution, judgment hath</li>
  <li>Repented o'er his doom.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANGELO</li>
  <li>Go to; let that be mine:</li>
  <li>Do you your office, or give up your place,</li>
  <li>And you shall well be spared.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Provost</li>
  <li class="number">I crave your honour's pardon.</li>
  <li>What shall be done, sir, with the groaning Juliet?</li>
  <li>She's very near her hour.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANGELO</li>
  <li>Dispose of her</li>
  <li>To some more fitter place, and that with speed.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Re-enter Servant</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Servant</li>
  <li class="number">Here is the sister of the man condemn'd</li>
  <li>Desires access to you.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANGELO</li>
  <li>Hath he a sister?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Provost</li>
  <li>Ay, my good lord; a very virtuous maid,</li>
  <li>And to be shortly of a sisterhood,</li>
  <li class="number">If not already.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANGELO</li>
  <li>Well, let her be admitted.</li>
  <li class="stage-direction">Exit Servant</li>
  <li>See you the fornicatress be removed:</li>
  <li>Let have needful, but not lavish, means;</li>
  <li>There shall be order for't.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Enter ISABELLA and LUCIO</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Provost</li>
  <li class="number">God save your honour!</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANGELO</li>
  <li>Stay a little while.</li>
  <li class="stage-direction">To ISABELLA</li>
  <li>You're welcome: what's your will?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ISABELLA</li>
  <li>I am a woeful suitor to your honour,</li>
  <li>Please but your honour hear me.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANGELO</li>
  <li class="number">Well; what's your suit?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ISABELLA</li>
  <li>There is a vice that most I do abhor,</li>
  <li>And most desire should meet the blow of justice;</li>
  <li>For which I would not plead, but that I must;</li>
  <li>For which I must not plead, but that I am</li>
  <li class="number">At war 'twixt will and will not.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANGELO</li>
  <li>Well; the matter?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ISABELLA</li>
  <li>I have a brother is condemn'd to die:</li>
  <li>I do beseech you, let it be his fault,</li>
  <li>And not my brother.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Provost</li>
  <li class="number">Aside  Heaven give thee moving graces!</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANGELO</li>
  <li>Condemn the fault and not the actor of it?</li>
  <li>Why, every fault's condemn'd ere it be done:</li>
  <li>Mine were the very cipher of a function,</li>
  <li>To fine the faults whose fine stands in record,</li>
  <li class="number">And let go by the actor.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ISABELLA</li>
  <li>O just but severe law!</li>
  <li>I had a brother, then. Heaven keep your honour!</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIO</li>
  <li>Aside to ISABELLA  Give't not o'er so: to him</li>
  <li>again, entreat him;</li>
  <li class="number">Kneel down before him, hang upon his gown:</li>
  <li>You are too cold; if you should need a pin,</li>
  <li>You could not with more tame a tongue desire it:</li>
  <li>To him, I say!</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ISABELLA</li>
  <li>Must he needs die?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANGELO</li>
  <li class="number">Maiden, no remedy.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ISABELLA</li>
  <li>Yes; I do think that you might pardon him,</li>
  <li>And neither heaven nor man grieve at the mercy.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANGELO</li>
  <li>I will not do't.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ISABELLA</li>
  <li>But can you, if you would?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANGELO</li>
  <li class="number">Look, what I will not, that I cannot do.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ISABELLA</li>
  <li>But might you do't, and do the world no wrong,</li>
  <li>If so your heart were touch'd with that remorse</li>
  <li>As mine is to him?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANGELO</li>
  <li>He's sentenced; 'tis too late.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIO</li>
  <li class="number">Aside to ISABELLA  You are too cold.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ISABELLA</li>
  <li>Too late? why, no; I, that do speak a word.</li>
  <li>May call it back again. Well, believe this,</li>
  <li>No ceremony that to great ones 'longs,</li>
  <li>Not the king's crown, nor the deputed sword,</li>
  <li class="number">The marshal's truncheon, nor the judge's robe,</li>
  <li>Become them with one half so good a grace</li>
  <li>As mercy does.</li>
  <li>If he had been as you and you as he,</li>
  <li>You would have slipt like him; but he, like you,</li>
  <li class="number">Would not have been so stern.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANGELO</li>
  <li>Pray you, be gone.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ISABELLA</li>
  <li>I would to heaven I had your potency,</li>
  <li>And you were Isabel! should it then be thus?</li>
  <li>No; I would tell what 'twere to be a judge,</li>
  <li class="number">And what a prisoner.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIO</li>
  <li>Aside to ISABELLA</li>
  <li>Ay, touch him; there's the vein.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANGELO</li>
  <li>Your brother is a forfeit of the law,</li>
  <li>And you but waste your words.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ISABELLA</li>
  <li class="number">Alas, alas!</li>
  <li>Why, all the souls that were were forfeit once;</li>
  <li>And He that might the vantage best have took</li>
  <li>Found out the remedy. How would you be,</li>
  <li>If He, which is the top of judgment, should</li>
  <li class="number">But judge you as you are? O, think on that;</li>
  <li>And mercy then will breathe within your lips,</li>
  <li>Like man new made.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANGELO</li>
  <li>Be you content, fair maid;</li>
  <li>It is the law, not I condemn your brother:</li>
  <li class="number">Were he my kinsman, brother, or my son,</li>
  <li>It should be thus with him: he must die tomorrow.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ISABELLA</li>
  <li>To-morrow! O, that's sudden! Spare him, spare him!</li>
  <li>He's not prepared for death. Even for our kitchens</li>
  <li>We kill the fowl of season: shall we serve heaven</li>
  <li class="number">With less respect than we do minister</li>
  <li>To our gross selves? Good, good my lord, bethink you;</li>
  <li>Who is it that hath died for this offence?</li>
  <li>There's many have committed it.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIO</li>
  <li>Aside to ISABELLA           Ay, well said.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANGELO</li>
  <li class="number">The law hath not been dead, though it hath slept:</li>
  <li>Those many had not dared to do that evil,</li>
  <li>If the first that did the edict infringe</li>
  <li>Had answer'd for his deed: now 'tis awake</li>
  <li>Takes note of what is done; and, like a prophet,</li>
  <li class="number">Looks in a glass, that shows what future evils,</li>
  <li>Either new, or by remissness new-conceived,</li>
  <li>And so in progress to be hatch'd and born,</li>
  <li>Are now to have no successive degrees,</li>
  <li>But, ere they live, to end.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ISABELLA</li>
  <li class="number">Yet show some pity.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANGELO</li>
  <li>I show it most of all when I show justice;</li>
  <li>For then I pity those I do not know,</li>
  <li>Which a dismiss'd offence would after gall;</li>
  <li>And do him right that, answering one foul wrong,</li>
  <li class="number">Lives not to act another. Be satisfied;</li>
  <li>Your brother dies to-morrow; be content.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ISABELLA</li>
  <li>So you must be the first that gives this sentence,</li>
  <li>And he, that suffer's. O, it is excellent</li>
  <li>To have a giant's strength; but it is tyrannous</li>
  <li class="number">To use it like a giant.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIO</li>
  <li>Aside to ISABELLA   That's well said.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ISABELLA</li>
  <li>Could great men thunder</li>
  <li>As Jove himself does, Jove would ne'er be quiet,</li>
  <li>For every pelting, petty officer</li>
  <li class="number">Would use his heaven for thunder;</li>
  <li>Nothing but thunder! Merciful Heaven,</li>
  <li>Thou rather with thy sharp and sulphurous bolt</li>
  <li>Split'st the unwedgeable and gnarled oak</li>
  <li>Than the soft myrtle: but man, proud man,</li>
  <li class="number">Drest in a little brief authority,</li>
  <li>Most ignorant of what he's most assured,</li>
  <li>His glassy essence, like an angry ape,</li>
  <li>Plays such fantastic tricks before high heaven</li>
  <li>As make the angels weep; who, with our spleens,</li>
  <li class="number">Would all themselves laugh mortal.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIO</li>
  <li>Aside to ISABELLA  O, to him, to him, wench! he</li>
  <li>will relent;</li>
  <li>He's coming; I perceive 't.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Provost</li>
  <li>Aside  Pray heaven she win him!</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ISABELLA</li>
  <li class="number">We cannot weigh our brother with ourself:</li>
  <li>Great men may jest with saints; 'tis wit in them,</li>
  <li>But in the less foul profanation.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIO</li>
  <li>Thou'rt i' the right, girl; more o, that.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ISABELLA</li>
  <li>That in the captain's but a choleric word,</li>
  <li class="number">Which in the soldier is flat blasphemy.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIO</li>
  <li>Aside to ISABELLA  Art avised o' that? more on 't.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANGELO</li>
  <li>Why do you put these sayings upon me?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ISABELLA</li>
  <li>Because authority, though it err like others,</li>
  <li>Hath yet a kind of medicine in itself,</li>
  <li class="number">That skins the vice o' the top. Go to your bosom;</li>
  <li>Knock there, and ask your heart what it doth know</li>
  <li>That's like my brother's fault: if it confess</li>
  <li>A natural guiltiness such as is his,</li>
  <li>Let it not sound a thought upon your tongue</li>
  <li class="number">Against my brother's life.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANGELO</li>
  <li>Aside                  She speaks, and 'tis</li>
  <li>Such sense, that my sense breeds with it. Fare you well.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ISABELLA</li>
  <li>Gentle my lord, turn back.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANGELO</li>
  <li>I will bethink me: come again tomorrow.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ISABELLA</li>
  <li class="number">Hark how I'll bribe you: good my lord, turn back.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANGELO</li>
  <li>How! bribe me?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ISABELLA</li>
  <li>Ay, with such gifts that heaven shall share with you.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIO</li>
  <li>Aside to ISABELLA  You had marr'd all else.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ISABELLA</li>
  <li>Not with fond shekels of the tested gold,</li>
  <li class="number">Or stones whose rates are either rich or poor</li>
  <li>As fancy values them; but with true prayers</li>
  <li>That shall be up at heaven and enter there</li>
  <li>Ere sun-rise, prayers from preserved souls,</li>
  <li>From fasting maids whose minds are dedicate</li>
  <li class="number">To nothing temporal.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANGELO</li>
  <li>Well; come to me to-morrow.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIO</li>
  <li>Aside to ISABELLA  Go to; 'tis well; away!</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ISABELLA</li>
  <li>Heaven keep your honour safe!</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANGELO</li>
  <li>Aside Amen:</li>
  <li class="number">For I am that way going to temptation,</li>
  <li>Where prayers cross.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ISABELLA</li>
  <li>At what hour to-morrow</li>
  <li>Shall I attend your lordship?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANGELO</li>
  <li>At any time 'fore noon.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ISABELLA</li>
  <li class="number">'Save your honour!</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Exeunt ISABELLA, LUCIO, and Provost</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANGELO</li>
  <li>From thee, even from thy virtue!</li>
  <li>What's this, what's this? Is this her fault or mine?</li>
  <li>The tempter or the tempted, who sins most?</li>
  <li>Ha!</li>
  <li class="number">Not she: nor doth she tempt: but it is I</li>
  <li>That, lying by the violet in the sun,</li>
  <li>Do as the carrion does, not as the flower,</li>
  <li>Corrupt with virtuous season. Can it be</li>
  <li>That modesty may more betray our sense</li>
  <li class="number">Than woman's lightness? Having waste ground enough,</li>
  <li>Shall we desire to raze the sanctuary</li>
  <li>And pitch our evils there? O, fie, fie, fie!</li>
  <li>What dost thou, or what art thou, Angelo?</li>
  <li>Dost thou desire her foully for those things</li>
  <li class="number">That make her good? O, let her brother live!</li>
  <li>Thieves for their robbery have authority</li>
  <li>When judges steal themselves. What, do I love her,</li>
  <li>That I desire to hear her speak again,</li>
  <li>And feast upon her eyes? What is't I dream on?</li>
  <li class="number">O cunning enemy, that, to catch a saint,</li>
  <li>With saints dost bait thy hook! Most dangerous</li>
  <li>Is that temptation that doth goad us on</li>
  <li>To sin in loving virtue: never could the strumpet,</li>
  <li>With all her double vigour, art and nature,</li>
  <li class="number">Once stir my temper; but this virtuous maid</li>
  <li>Subdues me quite. Even till now,</li>
  <li>When men were fond, I smiled and wonder'd how.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Exit</div>

</section>

<section class="scene">

<h3>SCENE III.  A room in a prison.</h3>

<div class="stage-direction">Enter, severally, DUKE VINCENTIO disguised as a
friar, and Provost</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>Hail to you, provost! so I think you are.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Provost</li>
  <li>I am the provost. What's your will, good friar?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>Bound by my charity and my blest order,</li>
  <li>I come to visit the afflicted spirits</li>
  <li class="number">Here in the prison. Do me the common right</li>
  <li>To let me see them and to make me know</li>
  <li>The nature of their crimes, that I may minister</li>
  <li>To them accordingly.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Provost</li>
  <li>I would do more than that, if more were needful.</li>
  <li class="stage-direction">Enter JULIET</li>
  <li class="number">Look, here comes one: a gentlewoman of mine,</li>
  <li>Who, falling in the flaws of her own youth,</li>
  <li>Hath blister'd her report: she is with child;</li>
  <li>And he that got it, sentenced; a young man</li>
  <li>More fit to do another such offence</li>
  <li class="number">Than die for this.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>When must he die?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Provost</li>
  <li>As I do think, to-morrow.</li>
  <li>I have provided for you: stay awhile,</li>
  <li class="stage-direction">To JULIET</li>
  <li>And you shall be conducted.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li class="number">Repent you, fair one, of the sin you carry?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">JULIET</li>
  <li>I do; and bear the shame most patiently.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>I'll teach you how you shall arraign your conscience,</li>
  <li>And try your penitence, if it be sound,</li>
  <li>Or hollowly put on.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">JULIET</li>
  <li class="number">I'll gladly learn.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>Love you the man that wrong'd you?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">JULIET</li>
  <li>Yes, as I love the woman that wrong'd him.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>So then it seems your most offenceful act</li>
  <li>Was mutually committed?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">JULIET</li>
  <li class="number">Mutually.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>Then was your sin of heavier kind than his.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">JULIET</li>
  <li>I do confess it, and repent it, father.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>'Tis meet so, daughter: but lest you do repent,</li>
  <li>As that the sin hath brought you to this shame,</li>
  <li class="number">Which sorrow is always towards ourselves, not heaven,</li>
  <li>Showing we would not spare heaven as we love it,</li>
  <li>But as we stand in fear —  </li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">JULIET</li>
  <li>I do repent me, as it is an evil,</li>
  <li>And take the shame with joy.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li class="number">There rest.</li>
  <li>Your partner, as I hear, must die to-morrow,</li>
  <li>And I am going with instruction to him.</li>
  <li>Grace go with you, Benedicite!</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Exit</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">JULIET</li>
  <li>Must die to-morrow! O injurious love,</li>
  <li class="number">That respites me a life, whose very comfort</li>
  <li>Is still a dying horror!</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Provost</li>
  <li>'Tis pity of him.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Exeunt</div>

</section>

<section class="scene">

<h3>SCENE IV.  A room in ANGELO's house.</h3>

<div class="stage-direction">Enter ANGELO</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANGELO</li>
  <li>When I would pray and think, I think and pray</li>
  <li>To several subjects. Heaven hath my empty words;</li>
  <li>Whilst my invention, hearing not my tongue,</li>
  <li>Anchors on Isabel: Heaven in my mouth,</li>
  <li class="number">As if I did but only chew his name;</li>
  <li>And in my heart the strong and swelling evil</li>
  <li>Of my conception. The state, whereon I studied</li>
  <li>Is like a good thing, being often read,</li>
  <li>Grown fear'd and tedious; yea, my gravity,</li>
  <li class="number">Wherein — let no man hear me — I take pride,</li>
  <li>Could I with boot change for an idle plume,</li>
  <li>Which the air beats for vain. O place, O form,</li>
  <li>How often dost thou with thy case, thy habit,</li>
  <li>Wrench awe from fools and tie the wiser souls</li>
  <li class="number">To thy false seeming! Blood, thou art blood:</li>
  <li>Let's write good angel on the devil's horn:</li>
  <li>'Tis not the devil's crest.</li>
  <li class="stage-direction">Enter a Servant</li>
  <li>How now! who's there?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Servant</li>
  <li>One Isabel, a sister, desires access to you.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANGELO</li>
  <li class="number">Teach her the way.</li>
  <li class="stage-direction">Exit Servant</li>
  <li>O heavens!</li>
  <li>Why does my blood thus muster to my heart,</li>
  <li>Making both it unable for itself,</li>
  <li>And dispossessing all my other parts</li>
  <li class="number">Of necessary fitness?</li>
  <li>So play the foolish throngs with one that swoons;</li>
  <li>Come all to help him, and so stop the air</li>
  <li>By which he should revive: and even so</li>
  <li>The general, subject to a well-wish'd king,</li>
  <li class="number">Quit their own part, and in obsequious fondness</li>
  <li>Crowd to his presence, where their untaught love</li>
  <li>Must needs appear offence.</li>
  <li class="stage-direction">Enter ISABELLA</li>
  <li>How now, fair maid?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ISABELLA</li>
  <li>I am come to know your pleasure.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANGELO</li>
  <li class="number">That you might know it, would much better please me</li>
  <li>Than to demand what 'tis. Your brother cannot live.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ISABELLA</li>
  <li>Even so. Heaven keep your honour!</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANGELO</li>
  <li>Yet may he live awhile; and, it may be,</li>
  <li>As long as you or I yet he must die.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ISABELLA</li>
  <li class="number">Under your sentence?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANGELO</li>
  <li>Yea.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ISABELLA</li>
  <li>When, I beseech you? that in his reprieve,</li>
  <li>Longer or shorter, he may be so fitted</li>
  <li>That his soul sicken not.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANGELO</li>
  <li class="number">Ha! fie, these filthy vices! It were as good</li>
  <li>To pardon him that hath from nature stolen</li>
  <li>A man already made, as to remit</li>
  <li>Their saucy sweetness that do coin heaven's image</li>
  <li>In stamps that are forbid: 'tis all as easy</li>
  <li class="number">Falsely to take away a life true made</li>
  <li>As to put metal in restrained means</li>
  <li>To make a false one.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ISABELLA</li>
  <li>'Tis set down so in heaven, but not in earth.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANGELO</li>
  <li>Say you so? then I shall pose you quickly.</li>
  <li class="number">Which had you rather, that the most just law</li>
  <li>Now took your brother's life; or, to redeem him,</li>
  <li>Give up your body to such sweet uncleanness</li>
  <li>As she that he hath stain'd?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ISABELLA</li>
  <li>Sir, believe this,</li>
  <li class="number">I had rather give my body than my soul.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANGELO</li>
  <li>I talk not of your soul: our compell'd sins</li>
  <li>Stand more for number than for accompt.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ISABELLA</li>
  <li>How say you?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANGELO</li>
  <li>Nay, I'll not warrant that; for I can speak</li>
  <li class="number">Against the thing I say. Answer to this:</li>
  <li>I, now the voice of the recorded law,</li>
  <li>Pronounce a sentence on your brother's life:</li>
  <li>Might there not be a charity in sin</li>
  <li>To save this brother's life?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ISABELLA</li>
  <li class="number">Please you to do't,</li>
  <li>I'll take it as a peril to my soul,</li>
  <li>It is no sin at all, but charity.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANGELO</li>
  <li>Pleased you to do't at peril of your soul,</li>
  <li>Were equal poise of sin and charity.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ISABELLA</li>
  <li class="number">That I do beg his life, if it be sin,</li>
  <li>Heaven let me bear it! you granting of my suit,</li>
  <li>If that be sin, I'll make it my morn prayer</li>
  <li>To have it added to the faults of mine,</li>
  <li>And nothing of your answer.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANGELO</li>
  <li class="number">Nay, but hear me.</li>
  <li>Your sense pursues not mine: either you are ignorant,</li>
  <li>Or seem so craftily; and that's not good.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ISABELLA</li>
  <li>Let me be ignorant, and in nothing good,</li>
  <li>But graciously to know I am no better.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANGELO</li>
  <li class="number">Thus wisdom wishes to appear most bright</li>
  <li>When it doth tax itself; as these black masks</li>
  <li>Proclaim an enshield beauty ten times louder</li>
  <li>Than beauty could, display'd. But mark me;</li>
  <li>To be received plain, I'll speak more gross:</li>
  <li class="number">Your brother is to die.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ISABELLA</li>
  <li>So.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANGELO</li>
  <li>And his offence is so, as it appears,</li>
  <li>Accountant to the law upon that pain.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ISABELLA</li>
  <li>True.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANGELO</li>
  <li class="number">Admit no other way to save his life —  </li>
  <li>As I subscribe not that, nor any other,</li>
  <li>But in the loss of question —  that you, his sister,</li>
  <li>Finding yourself desired of such a person,</li>
  <li>Whose credit with the judge, or own great place,</li>
  <li class="number">Could fetch your brother from the manacles</li>
  <li>Of the all-building law; and that there were</li>
  <li>No earthly mean to save him, but that either</li>
  <li>You must lay down the treasures of your body</li>
  <li>To this supposed, or else to let him suffer;</li>
  <li class="number">What would you do?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ISABELLA</li>
  <li>As much for my poor brother as myself:</li>
  <li>That is, were I under the terms of death,</li>
  <li>The impression of keen whips I'ld wear as rubies,</li>
  <li>And strip myself to death, as to a bed</li>
  <li class="number">That longing have been sick for, ere I'ld yield</li>
  <li>My body up to shame.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANGELO</li>
  <li>Then must your brother die.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ISABELLA</li>
  <li>And 'twere the cheaper way:</li>
  <li>Better it were a brother died at once,</li>
  <li class="number">Than that a sister, by redeeming him,</li>
  <li>Should die for ever.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANGELO</li>
  <li>Were not you then as cruel as the sentence</li>
  <li>That you have slander'd so?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ISABELLA</li>
  <li>Ignomy in ransom and free pardon</li>
  <li class="number">Are of two houses: lawful mercy</li>
  <li>Is nothing kin to foul redemption.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANGELO</li>
  <li>You seem'd of late to make the law a tyrant;</li>
  <li>And rather proved the sliding of your brother</li>
  <li>A merriment than a vice.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ISABELLA</li>
  <li class="number">O, pardon me, my lord; it oft falls out,</li>
  <li>To have what we would have, we speak not what we mean:</li>
  <li>I something do excuse the thing I hate,</li>
  <li>For his advantage that I dearly love.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANGELO</li>
  <li>We are all frail.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ISABELLA</li>
  <li class="number">Else let my brother die,</li>
  <li>If not a feodary, but only he</li>
  <li>Owe and succeed thy weakness.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANGELO</li>
  <li>Nay, women are frail too.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ISABELLA</li>
  <li>Ay, as the glasses where they view themselves;</li>
  <li class="number">Which are as easy broke as they make forms.</li>
  <li>Women! Help Heaven! men their creation mar</li>
  <li>In profiting by them. Nay, call us ten times frail;</li>
  <li>For we are soft as our complexions are,</li>
  <li>And credulous to false prints.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANGELO</li>
  <li class="number">I think it well:</li>
  <li>And from this testimony of your own sex —  </li>
  <li>Since I suppose we are made to be no stronger</li>
  <li>Than faults may shake our frames —  let me be bold;</li>
  <li>I do arrest your words. Be that you are,</li>
  <li class="number">That is, a woman; if you be more, you're none;</li>
  <li>If you be one, as you are well express'd</li>
  <li>By all external warrants, show it now,</li>
  <li>By putting on the destined livery.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ISABELLA</li>
  <li>I have no tongue but one: gentle my lord,</li>
  <li class="number">Let me entreat you speak the former language.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANGELO</li>
  <li>Plainly conceive, I love you.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ISABELLA</li>
  <li>My brother did love Juliet,</li>
  <li>And you tell me that he shall die for it.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANGELO</li>
  <li>He shall not, Isabel, if you give me love.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ISABELLA</li>
  <li class="number">I know your virtue hath a licence in't,</li>
  <li>Which seems a little fouler than it is,</li>
  <li>To pluck on others.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANGELO</li>
  <li>Believe me, on mine honour,</li>
  <li>My words express my purpose.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ISABELLA</li>
  <li class="number">Ha! little honour to be much believed,</li>
  <li>And most pernicious purpose! Seeming, seeming!</li>
  <li>I will proclaim thee, Angelo; look for't:</li>
  <li>Sign me a present pardon for my brother,</li>
  <li>Or with an outstretch'd throat I'll tell the world aloud</li>
  <li class="number">What man thou art.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANGELO</li>
  <li>Who will believe thee, Isabel?</li>
  <li>My unsoil'd name, the austereness of my life,</li>
  <li>My vouch against you, and my place i' the state,</li>
  <li>Will so your accusation overweigh,</li>
  <li class="number">That you shall stifle in your own report</li>
  <li>And smell of calumny. I have begun,</li>
  <li>And now I give my sensual race the rein:</li>
  <li>Fit thy consent to my sharp appetite;</li>
  <li>Lay by all nicety and prolixious blushes,</li>
  <li class="number">That banish what they sue for; redeem thy brother</li>
  <li>By yielding up thy body to my will;</li>
  <li>Or else he must not only die the death,</li>
  <li>But thy unkindness shall his death draw out</li>
  <li>To lingering sufferance. Answer me to-morrow,</li>
  <li class="number">Or, by the affection that now guides me most,</li>
  <li>I'll prove a tyrant to him. As for you,</li>
  <li>Say what you can, my false o'erweighs your true.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Exit</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ISABELLA</li>
  <li>To whom should I complain? Did I tell this,</li>
  <li>Who would believe me? O perilous mouths,</li>
  <li class="number">That bear in them one and the self-same tongue,</li>
  <li>Either of condemnation or approof;</li>
  <li>Bidding the law make court'sy to their will:</li>
  <li>Hooking both right and wrong to the appetite,</li>
  <li>To follow as it draws! I'll to my brother:</li>
  <li class="number">Though he hath fallen by prompture of the blood,</li>
  <li>Yet hath he in him such a mind of honour.</li>
  <li>That, had he twenty heads to tender down</li>
  <li>On twenty bloody blocks, he'ld yield them up,</li>
  <li>Before his sister should her body stoop</li>
  <li class="number">To such abhorr'd pollution.</li>
  <li>Then, Isabel, live chaste, and, brother, die:</li>
  <li>More than our brother is our chastity.</li>
  <li>I'll tell him yet of Angelo's request,</li>
  <li>And fit his mind to death, for his soul's rest.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Exit</div>

</section>

</section>

<section class="act">

<h2>ACT III</h2>

<section class="scene">

<h3>SCENE I.  A room in the prison.</h3>

<div class="stage-direction">Enter DUKE VINCENTIO disguised as before, CLAUDIO,
and Provost</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>So then you hope of pardon from Lord Angelo?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li>The miserable have no other medicine</li>
  <li>But only hope:</li>
  <li>I've hope to live, and am prepared to die.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li class="number">Be absolute for death; either death or life</li>
  <li>Shall thereby be the sweeter. Reason thus with life:</li>
  <li>If I do lose thee, I do lose a thing</li>
  <li>That none but fools would keep: a breath thou art,</li>
  <li>Servile to all the skyey influences,</li>
  <li class="number">That dost this habitation, where thou keep'st,</li>
  <li>Hourly afflict: merely, thou art death's fool;</li>
  <li>For him thou labour'st by thy flight to shun</li>
  <li>And yet runn'st toward him still. Thou art not noble;</li>
  <li>For all the accommodations that thou bear'st</li>
  <li class="number">Are nursed by baseness. Thou'rt by no means valiant;</li>
  <li>For thou dost fear the soft and tender fork</li>
  <li>Of a poor worm. Thy best of rest is sleep,</li>
  <li>And that thou oft provokest; yet grossly fear'st</li>
  <li>Thy death, which is no more. Thou art not thyself;</li>
  <li class="number">For thou exist'st on many a thousand grains</li>
  <li>That issue out of dust. Happy thou art not;</li>
  <li>For what thou hast not, still thou strivest to get,</li>
  <li>And what thou hast, forget'st. Thou art not certain;</li>
  <li>For thy complexion shifts to strange effects,</li>
  <li class="number">After the moon. If thou art rich, thou'rt poor;</li>
  <li>For, like an ass whose back with ingots bows,</li>
  <li>Thou bear's thy heavy riches but a journey,</li>
  <li>And death unloads thee. Friend hast thou none;</li>
  <li>For thine own bowels, which do call thee sire,</li>
  <li class="number">The mere effusion of thy proper loins,</li>
  <li>Do curse the gout, serpigo, and the rheum,</li>
  <li>For ending thee no sooner. Thou hast nor youth nor age,</li>
  <li>But, as it were, an after-dinner's sleep,</li>
  <li>Dreaming on both; for all thy blessed youth</li>
  <li class="number">Becomes as aged, and doth beg the alms</li>
  <li>Of palsied eld; and when thou art old and rich,</li>
  <li>Thou hast neither heat, affection, limb, nor beauty,</li>
  <li>To make thy riches pleasant. What's yet in this</li>
  <li>That bears the name of life? Yet in this life</li>
  <li class="number">Lie hid moe thousand deaths: yet death we fear,</li>
  <li>That makes these odds all even.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li>I humbly thank you.</li>
  <li>To sue to live, I find I seek to die;</li>
  <li>And, seeking death, find life: let it come on.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ISABELLA</li>
  <li class="number">Within  What, ho! Peace here; grace and good company!</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Provost</li>
  <li>Who's there? come in: the wish deserves a welcome.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>Dear sir, ere long I'll visit you again.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li>Most holy sir, I thank you.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Enter ISABELLA</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ISABELLA</li>
  <li>My business is a word or two with Claudio.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Provost</li>
  <li class="number">And very welcome. Look, signior, here's your sister.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>Provost, a word with you.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Provost</li>
  <li>As many as you please.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>Bring me to hear them speak, where I may be concealed.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Exeunt DUKE VINCENTIO and Provost</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li>Now, sister, what's the comfort?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ISABELLA</li>
  <li class="number">Why,</li>
  <li>As all comforts are; most good, most good indeed.</li>
  <li>Lord Angelo, having affairs to heaven,</li>
  <li>Intends you for his swift ambassador,</li>
  <li>Where you shall be an everlasting leiger:</li>
  <li class="number">Therefore your best appointment make with speed;</li>
  <li>To-morrow you set on.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li>Is there no remedy?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ISABELLA</li>
  <li>None, but such remedy as, to save a head,</li>
  <li>To cleave a heart in twain.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li class="number">But is there any?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ISABELLA</li>
  <li>Yes, brother, you may live:</li>
  <li>There is a devilish mercy in the judge,</li>
  <li>If you'll implore it, that will free your life,</li>
  <li>But fetter you till death.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li class="number">Perpetual durance?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ISABELLA</li>
  <li>Ay, just; perpetual durance, a restraint,</li>
  <li>Though all the world's vastidity you had,</li>
  <li>To a determined scope.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li>But in what nature?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ISABELLA</li>
  <li class="number">In such a one as, you consenting to't,</li>
  <li>Would bark your honour from that trunk you bear,</li>
  <li>And leave you naked.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li>Let me know the point.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ISABELLA</li>
  <li>O, I do fear thee, Claudio; and I quake,</li>
  <li class="number">Lest thou a feverous life shouldst entertain,</li>
  <li>And six or seven winters more respect</li>
  <li>Than a perpetual honour. Darest thou die?</li>
  <li>The sense of death is most in apprehension;</li>
  <li>And the poor beetle, that we tread upon,</li>
  <li class="number">In corporal sufferance finds a pang as great</li>
  <li>As when a giant dies.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li>Why give you me this shame?</li>
  <li>Think you I can a resolution fetch</li>
  <li>From flowery tenderness? If I must die,</li>
  <li class="number">I will encounter darkness as a bride,</li>
  <li>And hug it in mine arms.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ISABELLA</li>
  <li>There spake my brother; there my father's grave</li>
  <li>Did utter forth a voice. Yes, thou must die:</li>
  <li>Thou art too noble to conserve a life</li>
  <li class="number">In base appliances. This outward-sainted deputy,</li>
  <li>Whose settled visage and deliberate word</li>
  <li>Nips youth i' the head and follies doth emmew</li>
  <li>As falcon doth the fowl, is yet a devil</li>
  <li>His filth within being cast, he would appear</li>
  <li class="number">A pond as deep as hell.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li>The prenzie Angelo!</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ISABELLA</li>
  <li>O, 'tis the cunning livery of hell,</li>
  <li>The damned'st body to invest and cover</li>
  <li>In prenzie guards! Dost thou think, Claudio?</li>
  <li class="number">If I would yield him my virginity,</li>
  <li>Thou mightst be freed.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li>O heavens! it cannot be.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ISABELLA</li>
  <li>Yes, he would give't thee, from this rank offence,</li>
  <li>So to offend him still. This night's the time</li>
  <li class="number">That I should do what I abhor to name,</li>
  <li>Or else thou diest to-morrow.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li>Thou shalt not do't.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ISABELLA</li>
  <li>O, were it but my life,</li>
  <li>I'ld throw it down for your deliverance</li>
  <li class="number">As frankly as a pin.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li>Thanks, dear Isabel.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ISABELLA</li>
  <li>Be ready, Claudio, for your death tomorrow.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li>Yes. Has he affections in him,</li>
  <li>That thus can make him bite the law by the nose,</li>
  <li class="number">When he would force it? Sure, it is no sin,</li>
  <li>Or of the deadly seven, it is the least.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ISABELLA</li>
  <li>Which is the least?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li>If it were damnable, he being so wise,</li>
  <li>Why would he for the momentary trick</li>
  <li class="number">Be perdurably fined? O Isabel!</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ISABELLA</li>
  <li>What says my brother?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li>Death is a fearful thing.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ISABELLA</li>
  <li>And shamed life a hateful.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li>Ay, but to die, and go we know not where;</li>
  <li class="number">To lie in cold obstruction and to rot;</li>
  <li>This sensible warm motion to become</li>
  <li>A kneaded clod; and the delighted spirit</li>
  <li>To bathe in fiery floods, or to reside</li>
  <li>In thrilling region of thick-ribbed ice;</li>
  <li class="number">To be imprison'd in the viewless winds,</li>
  <li>And blown with restless violence round about</li>
  <li>The pendent world; or to be worse than worst</li>
  <li>Of those that lawless and incertain thought</li>
  <li>Imagine howling: 'tis too horrible!</li>
  <li class="number">The weariest and most loathed worldly life</li>
  <li>That age, ache, penury and imprisonment</li>
  <li>Can lay on nature is a paradise</li>
  <li>To what we fear of death.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ISABELLA</li>
  <li>Alas, alas!</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li class="number">Sweet sister, let me live:</li>
  <li>What sin you do to save a brother's life,</li>
  <li>Nature dispenses with the deed so far</li>
  <li>That it becomes a virtue.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ISABELLA</li>
  <li>O you beast!</li>
  <li class="number">O faithless coward! O dishonest wretch!</li>
  <li>Wilt thou be made a man out of my vice?</li>
  <li>Is't not a kind of incest, to take life</li>
  <li>From thine own sister's shame? What should I think?</li>
  <li>Heaven shield my mother play'd my father fair!</li>
  <li class="number">For such a warped slip of wilderness</li>
  <li>Ne'er issued from his blood. Take my defiance!</li>
  <li>Die, perish! Might but my bending down</li>
  <li>Reprieve thee from thy fate, it should proceed:</li>
  <li>I'll pray a thousand prayers for thy death,</li>
  <li class="number">No word to save thee.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li>Nay, hear me, Isabel.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ISABELLA</li>
  <li>O, fie, fie, fie!</li>
  <li>Thy sin's not accidental, but a trade.</li>
  <li>Mercy to thee would prove itself a bawd:</li>
  <li class="number">'Tis best thou diest quickly.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li>O hear me, Isabella!</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Re-enter DUKE VINCENTIO</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>Vouchsafe a word, young sister, but one word.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ISABELLA</li>
  <li>What is your will?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>Might you dispense with your leisure, I would by and</li>
  <li class="number">by have some speech with you: the satisfaction I</li>
  <li>would require is likewise your own benefit.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ISABELLA</li>
  <li>I have no superfluous leisure; my stay must be</li>
  <li>stolen out of other affairs; but I will attend you awhile.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Walks apart</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>Son, I have overheard what hath passed between you</li>
  <li class="number">and your sister. Angelo had never the purpose to</li>
  <li>corrupt her; only he hath made an essay of her</li>
  <li>virtue to practise his judgment with the disposition</li>
  <li>of natures: she, having the truth of honour in her,</li>
  <li>hath made him that gracious denial which he is most</li>
  <li class="number">glad to receive. I am confessor to Angelo, and I</li>
  <li>know this to be true; therefore prepare yourself to</li>
  <li>death: do not satisfy your resolution with hopes</li>
  <li>that are fallible: tomorrow you must die; go to</li>
  <li>your knees and make ready.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li class="number">Let me ask my sister pardon. I am so out of love</li>
  <li>with life that I will sue to be rid of it.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>Hold you there: farewell.</li>
  <li class="stage-direction">Exit CLAUDIO</li>
  <li>Provost, a word with you!</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Re-enter Provost</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Provost</li>
  <li>What's your will, father</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li class="number">That now you are come, you will be gone. Leave me</li>
  <li>awhile with the maid: my mind promises with my</li>
  <li>habit no loss shall touch her by my company.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Provost</li>
  <li>In good time.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Exit Provost. ISABELLA comes forward</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>The hand that hath made you fair hath made you good:</li>
  <li class="number">the goodness that is cheap in beauty makes beauty</li>
  <li>brief in goodness; but grace, being the soul of</li>
  <li>your complexion, shall keep the body of it ever</li>
  <li>fair. The assault that Angelo hath made to you,</li>
  <li>fortune hath conveyed to my understanding; and, but</li>
  <li class="number">that frailty hath examples for his falling, I should</li>
  <li>wonder at Angelo. How will you do to content this</li>
  <li>substitute, and to save your brother?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ISABELLA</li>
  <li>I am now going to resolve him: I had rather my</li>
  <li>brother die by the law than my son should be</li>
  <li class="number">unlawfully born. But, O, how much is the good duke</li>
  <li>deceived in Angelo! If ever he return and I can</li>
  <li>speak to him, I will open my lips in vain, or</li>
  <li>discover his government.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>That shall not be much amiss: Yet, as the matter</li>
  <li class="number">now stands, he will avoid your accusation; he made</li>
  <li>trial of you only. Therefore fasten your ear on my</li>
  <li>advisings: to the love I have in doing good a</li>
  <li>remedy presents itself. I do make myself believe</li>
  <li>that you may most uprighteously do a poor wronged</li>
  <li class="number">lady a merited benefit; redeem your brother from</li>
  <li>the angry law; do no stain to your own gracious</li>
  <li>person; and much please the absent duke, if</li>
  <li>peradventure he shall ever return to have hearing of</li>
  <li>this business.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ISABELLA</li>
  <li class="number">Let me hear you speak farther. I have spirit to do</li>
  <li>anything that appears not foul in the truth of my spirit.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>Virtue is bold, and goodness never fearful. Have</li>
  <li>you not heard speak of Mariana, the sister of</li>
  <li>Frederick the great soldier who miscarried at sea?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ISABELLA</li>
  <li class="number">I have heard of the lady, and good words went with her name.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>She should this Angelo have married; was affianced</li>
  <li>to her by oath, and the nuptial appointed: between</li>
  <li>which time of the contract and limit of the</li>
  <li>solemnity, her brother Frederick was wrecked at sea,</li>
  <li class="number">having in that perished vessel the dowry of his</li>
  <li>sister. But mark how heavily this befell to the</li>
  <li>poor gentlewoman: there she lost a noble and</li>
  <li>renowned brother, in his love toward her ever most</li>
  <li>kind and natural; with him, the portion and sinew of</li>
  <li class="number">her fortune, her marriage-dowry; with both, her</li>
  <li>combinate husband, this well-seeming Angelo.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ISABELLA</li>
  <li>Can this be so? did Angelo so leave her?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>Left her in her tears, and dried not one of them</li>
  <li>with his comfort; swallowed his vows whole,</li>
  <li class="number">pretending in her discoveries of dishonour: in few,</li>
  <li>bestowed her on her own lamentation, which she yet</li>
  <li>wears for his sake; and he, a marble to her tears,</li>
  <li>is washed with them, but relents not.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ISABELLA</li>
  <li>What a merit were it in death to take this poor maid</li>
  <li class="number">from the world! What corruption in this life, that</li>
  <li>it will let this man live! But how out of this can she avail?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>It is a rupture that you may easily heal: and the</li>
  <li>cure of it not only saves your brother, but keeps</li>
  <li>you from dishonour in doing it.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ISABELLA</li>
  <li class="number">Show me how, good father.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>This forenamed maid hath yet in her the continuance</li>
  <li>of her first affection: his unjust unkindness, that</li>
  <li>in all reason should have quenched her love, hath,</li>
  <li>like an impediment in the current, made it more</li>
  <li class="number">violent and unruly. Go you to Angelo; answer his</li>
  <li>requiring with a plausible obedience; agree with</li>
  <li>his demands to the point; only refer yourself to</li>
  <li>this advantage, first, that your stay with him may</li>
  <li>not be long; that the time may have all shadow and</li>
  <li class="number">silence in it; and the place answer to convenience.</li>
  <li>This being granted in course —  and now follows</li>
  <li>all —  we shall advise this wronged maid to stead up</li>
  <li>your appointment, go in your place; if the encounter</li>
  <li>acknowledge itself hereafter, it may compel him to</li>
  <li class="number">her recompense: and here, by this, is your brother</li>
  <li>saved, your honour untainted, the poor Mariana</li>
  <li>advantaged, and the corrupt deputy scaled. The maid</li>
  <li>will I frame and make fit for his attempt. If you</li>
  <li>think well to carry this as you may, the doubleness</li>
  <li class="number">of the benefit defends the deceit from reproof.</li>
  <li>What think you of it?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ISABELLA</li>
  <li>The image of it gives me content already; and I</li>
  <li>trust it will grow to a most prosperous perfection.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>It lies much in your holding up. Haste you speedily</li>
  <li class="number">to Angelo: if for this night he entreat you to his</li>
  <li>bed, give him promise of satisfaction. I will</li>
  <li>presently to Saint Luke's: there, at the moated</li>
  <li>grange, resides this dejected Mariana. At that</li>
  <li>place call upon me; and dispatch with Angelo, that</li>
  <li class="number">it may be quickly.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ISABELLA</li>
  <li>I thank you for this comfort. Fare you well, good father.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Exeunt severally</div>

</section>

<section class="scene">

<h3>SCENE II.  The street before the prison.</h3>

<div class="stage-direction">Enter, on one side, DUKE VINCENTIO disguised as
before; on the other, ELBOW, and Officers with POMPEY</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ELBOW</li>
  <li>Nay, if there be no remedy for it, but that you will</li>
  <li>needs buy and sell men and women like beasts, we</li>
  <li>shall have all the world drink brown and white bastard.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>O heavens! what stuff is here</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">POMPEY</li>
  <li class="number">'Twas never merry world since, of two usuries, the</li>
  <li>merriest was put down, and the worser allowed by</li>
  <li>order of law a furred gown to keep him warm; and</li>
  <li>furred with fox and lamb-skins too, to signify, that</li>
  <li>craft, being richer than innocency, stands for the facing.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ELBOW</li>
  <li class="number">Come your way, sir. 'Bless you, good father friar.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>And you, good brother father. What offence hath</li>
  <li>this man made you, sir?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ELBOW</li>
  <li>Marry, sir, he hath offended the law: and, sir, we</li>
  <li>take him to be a thief too, sir; for we have found</li>
  <li class="number">upon him, sir, a strange picklock, which we have</li>
  <li>sent to the deputy.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>Fie, sirrah! a bawd, a wicked bawd!</li>
  <li>The evil that thou causest to be done,</li>
  <li>That is thy means to live. Do thou but think</li>
  <li class="number">What 'tis to cram a maw or clothe a back</li>
  <li>From such a filthy vice: say to thyself,</li>
  <li>From their abominable and beastly touches</li>
  <li>I drink, I eat, array myself, and live.</li>
  <li>Canst thou believe thy living is a life,</li>
  <li class="number">So stinkingly depending? Go mend, go mend.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">POMPEY</li>
  <li>Indeed, it does stink in some sort, sir; but yet,</li>
  <li>sir, I would prove — </li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>Nay, if the devil have given thee proofs for sin,</li>
  <li>Thou wilt prove his. Take him to prison, officer:</li>
  <li class="number">Correction and instruction must both work</li>
  <li>Ere this rude beast will profit.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ELBOW</li>
  <li>He must before the deputy, sir; he has given him</li>
  <li>warning: the deputy cannot abide a whoremaster: if</li>
  <li>he be a whoremonger, and comes before him, he were</li>
  <li class="number">as good go a mile on his errand.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>That we were all, as some would seem to be,</li>
  <li>From our faults, as faults from seeming, free!</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ELBOW</li>
  <li>His neck will come to your waist —  a cord, sir.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">POMPEY</li>
  <li>I spy comfort; I cry bail. Here's a gentleman and a</li>
  <li class="number">friend of mine.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Enter LUCIO</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIO</li>
  <li>How now, noble Pompey! What, at the wheels of</li>
  <li>Caesar? art thou led in triumph? What, is there</li>
  <li>none of Pygmalion's images, newly made woman, to be</li>
  <li>had now, for putting the hand in the pocket and</li>
  <li class="number">extracting it clutch'd? What reply, ha? What</li>
  <li>sayest thou to this tune, matter and method? Is't</li>
  <li>not drowned i' the last rain, ha? What sayest</li>
  <li>thou, Trot? Is the world as it was, man? Which is</li>
  <li>the way? Is it sad, and few words? or how? The</li>
  <li class="number">trick of it?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>Still thus, and thus; still worse!</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIO</li>
  <li>How doth my dear morsel, thy mistress? Procures she</li>
  <li>still, ha?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">POMPEY</li>
  <li>Troth, sir, she hath eaten up all her beef, and she</li>
  <li class="number">is herself in the tub.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIO</li>
  <li>Why, 'tis good; it is the right of it; it must be</li>
  <li>so: ever your fresh whore and your powdered bawd:</li>
  <li>an unshunned consequence; it must be so. Art going</li>
  <li>to prison, Pompey?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">POMPEY</li>
  <li class="number">Yes, faith, sir.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIO</li>
  <li>Why, 'tis not amiss, Pompey. Farewell: go, say I</li>
  <li>sent thee thither. For debt, Pompey? or how?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ELBOW</li>
  <li>For being a bawd, for being a bawd.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIO</li>
  <li>Well, then, imprison him: if imprisonment be the</li>
  <li class="number">due of a bawd, why, 'tis his right: bawd is he</li>
  <li>doubtless, and of antiquity too; bawd-born.</li>
  <li>Farewell, good Pompey. Commend me to the prison,</li>
  <li>Pompey: you will turn good husband now, Pompey; you</li>
  <li>will keep the house.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">POMPEY</li>
  <li class="number">I hope, sir, your good worship will be my bail.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIO</li>
  <li>No, indeed, will I not, Pompey; it is not the wear.</li>
  <li>I will pray, Pompey, to increase your bondage: If</li>
  <li>you take it not patiently, why, your mettle is the</li>
  <li>more. Adieu, trusty Pompey. 'Bless you, friar.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li class="number">And you.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIO</li>
  <li>Does Bridget paint still, Pompey, ha?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ELBOW</li>
  <li>Come your ways, sir; come.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">POMPEY</li>
  <li>You will not bail me, then, sir?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIO</li>
  <li>Then, Pompey, nor now. What news abroad, friar?</li>
  <li class="number">what news?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ELBOW</li>
  <li>Come your ways, sir; come.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIO</li>
  <li>Go to kennel, Pompey; go.</li>
  <li class="stage-direction">Exeunt ELBOW, POMPEY and Officers</li>
  <li>What news, friar, of the duke?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>I know none. Can you tell me of any?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIO</li>
  <li class="number">Some say he is with the Emperor of Russia; other</li>
  <li>some, he is in Rome: but where is he, think you?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>I know not where; but wheresoever, I wish him well.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIO</li>
  <li>It was a mad fantastical trick of him to steal from</li>
  <li>the state, and usurp the beggary he was never born</li>
  <li class="number">to. Lord Angelo dukes it well in his absence; he</li>
  <li>puts transgression to 't.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>He does well in 't.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIO</li>
  <li>A little more lenity to lechery would do no harm in</li>
  <li>him: something too crabbed that way, friar.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li class="number">It is too general a vice, and severity must cure it.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIO</li>
  <li>Yes, in good sooth, the vice is of a great kindred;</li>
  <li>it is well allied: but it is impossible to extirp</li>
  <li>it quite, friar, till eating and drinking be put</li>
  <li>down. They say this Angelo was not made by man and</li>
  <li class="number">woman after this downright way of creation: is it</li>
  <li>true, think you?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>How should he be made, then?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIO</li>
  <li>Some report a sea-maid spawned him; some, that he</li>
  <li>was begot between two stock-fishes. But it is</li>
  <li class="number">certain that when he makes water his urine is</li>
  <li>congealed ice; that I know to be true: and he is a</li>
  <li>motion generative; that's infallible.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>You are pleasant, sir, and speak apace.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIO</li>
  <li>Why, what a ruthless thing is this in him, for the</li>
  <li class="number">rebellion of a codpiece to take away the life of a</li>
  <li>man! Would the duke that is absent have done this?</li>
  <li>Ere he would have hanged a man for the getting a</li>
  <li>hundred bastards, he would have paid for the nursing</li>
  <li>a thousand: he had some feeling of the sport: he</li>
  <li class="number">knew the service, and that instructed him to mercy.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>I never heard the absent duke much detected for</li>
  <li>women; he was not inclined that way.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIO</li>
  <li>O, sir, you are deceived.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>'Tis not possible.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIO</li>
  <li class="number">Who, not the duke? yes, your beggar of fifty; and</li>
  <li>his use was to put a ducat in her clack-dish: the</li>
  <li>duke had crotchets in him. He would be drunk too;</li>
  <li>that let me inform you.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>You do him wrong, surely.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIO</li>
  <li class="number">Sir, I was an inward of his. A shy fellow was the</li>
  <li>duke: and I believe I know the cause of his</li>
  <li>withdrawing.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>What, I prithee, might be the cause?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIO</li>
  <li>No, pardon; 'tis a secret must be locked within the</li>
  <li class="number">teeth and the lips: but this I can let you</li>
  <li>understand, the greater file of the subject held the</li>
  <li>duke to be wise.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>Wise! why, no question but he was.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIO</li>
  <li>A very superficial, ignorant, unweighing fellow.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li class="number">Either this is the envy in you, folly, or mistaking:</li>
  <li>the very stream of his life and the business he hath</li>
  <li>helmed must upon a warranted need give him a better</li>
  <li>proclamation. Let him be but testimonied in his own</li>
  <li>bringings-forth, and he shall appear to the</li>
  <li class="number">envious a scholar, a statesman and a soldier.</li>
  <li>Therefore you speak unskilfully: or if your</li>
  <li>knowledge be more it is much darkened in your malice.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIO</li>
  <li>Sir, I know him, and I love him.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>Love talks with better knowledge, and knowledge with</li>
  <li class="number">dearer love.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIO</li>
  <li>Come, sir, I know what I know.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>I can hardly believe that, since you know not what</li>
  <li>you speak. But, if ever the duke return, as our</li>
  <li>prayers are he may, let me desire you to make your</li>
  <li class="number">answer before him. If it be honest you have spoke,</li>
  <li>you have courage to maintain it: I am bound to call</li>
  <li>upon you; and, I pray you, your name?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIO</li>
  <li>Sir, my name is Lucio; well known to the duke.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>He shall know you better, sir, if I may live to</li>
  <li class="number">report you.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIO</li>
  <li>I fear you not.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>O, you hope the duke will return no more; or you</li>
  <li>imagine me too unhurtful an opposite. But indeed I</li>
  <li>can do you little harm; you'll forswear this again.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIO</li>
  <li class="number">I'll be hanged first: thou art deceived in me,</li>
  <li>friar. But no more of this. Canst thou tell if</li>
  <li>Claudio die to-morrow or no?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>Why should he die, sir?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIO</li>
  <li>Why? For filling a bottle with a tundish. I would</li>
  <li class="number">the duke we talk of were returned again: the</li>
  <li>ungenitured agent will unpeople the province with</li>
  <li>continency; sparrows must not build in his</li>
  <li>house-eaves, because they are lecherous. The duke</li>
  <li>yet would have dark deeds darkly answered; he would</li>
  <li class="number">never bring them to light: would he were returned!</li>
  <li>Marry, this Claudio is condemned for untrussing.</li>
  <li>Farewell, good friar: I prithee, pray for me. The</li>
  <li>duke, I say to thee again, would eat mutton on</li>
  <li>Fridays. He's not past it yet, and I say to thee,</li>
  <li class="number">he would mouth with a beggar, though she smelt brown</li>
  <li>bread and garlic: say that I said so. Farewell.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Exit</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>No might nor greatness in mortality</li>
  <li>Can censure 'scape; back-wounding calumny</li>
  <li>The whitest virtue strikes. What king so strong</li>
  <li class="number">Can tie the gall up in the slanderous tongue?</li>
  <li>But who comes here?</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Enter ESCALUS, Provost, and Officers with MISTRESS OVERDONE</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ESCALUS</li>
  <li>Go; away with her to prison!</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">MISTRESS OVERDONE</li>
  <li>Good my lord, be good to me; your honour is accounted</li>
  <li>a merciful man; good my lord.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ESCALUS</li>
  <li class="number">Double and treble admonition, and still forfeit in</li>
  <li>the same kind! This would make mercy swear and play</li>
  <li>the tyrant.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Provost</li>
  <li>A bawd of eleven years' continuance, may it please</li>
  <li>your honour.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">MISTRESS OVERDONE</li>
  <li class="number">My lord, this is one Lucio's information against me.</li>
  <li>Mistress Kate Keepdown was with child by him in the</li>
  <li>duke's time; he promised her marriage: his child</li>
  <li>is a year and a quarter old, come Philip and Jacob:</li>
  <li>I have kept it myself; and see how he goes about to abuse me!</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ESCALUS</li>
  <li class="number">That fellow is a fellow of much licence: let him be</li>
  <li>called before us. Away with her to prison! Go to;</li>
  <li>no more words.</li>
  <li class="stage-direction">Exeunt Officers with MISTRESS OVERDONE</li>
  <li>Provost, my brother Angelo will not be altered;</li>
  <li>Claudio must die to-morrow: let him be furnished</li>
  <li class="number">with divines, and have all charitable preparation.</li>
  <li>if my brother wrought by my pity, it should not be</li>
  <li>so with him.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Provost</li>
  <li>So please you, this friar hath been with him, and</li>
  <li>advised him for the entertainment of death.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ESCALUS</li>
  <li class="number">Good even, good father.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>Bliss and goodness on you!</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ESCALUS</li>
  <li>Of whence are you?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>Not of this country, though my chance is now</li>
  <li>To use it for my time: I am a brother</li>
  <li class="number">Of gracious order, late come from the See</li>
  <li>In special business from his holiness.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ESCALUS</li>
  <li>What news abroad i' the world?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>None, but that there is so great a fever on</li>
  <li>goodness, that the dissolution of it must cure it:</li>
  <li class="number">novelty is only in request; and it is as dangerous</li>
  <li>to be aged in any kind of course, as it is virtuous</li>
  <li>to be constant in any undertaking. There is scarce</li>
  <li>truth enough alive to make societies secure; but</li>
  <li>security enough to make fellowships accurst: much</li>
  <li class="number">upon this riddle runs the wisdom of the world. This</li>
  <li>news is old enough, yet it is every day's news. I</li>
  <li>pray you, sir, of what disposition was the duke?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ESCALUS</li>
  <li>One that, above all other strifes, contended</li>
  <li>especially to know himself.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li class="number">What pleasure was he given to?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ESCALUS</li>
  <li>Rather rejoicing to see another merry, than merry at</li>
  <li>any thing which professed to make him rejoice: a</li>
  <li>gentleman of all temperance. But leave we him to</li>
  <li>his events, with a prayer they may prove prosperous;</li>
  <li class="number">and let me desire to know how you find Claudio</li>
  <li>prepared. I am made to understand that you have</li>
  <li>lent him visitation.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>He professes to have received no sinister measure</li>
  <li>from his judge, but most willingly humbles himself</li>
  <li class="number">to the determination of justice: yet had he framed</li>
  <li>to himself, by the instruction of his frailty, many</li>
  <li>deceiving promises of life; which I by my good</li>
  <li>leisure have discredited to him, and now is he</li>
  <li>resolved to die.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ESCALUS</li>
  <li class="number">You have paid the heavens your function, and the</li>
  <li>prisoner the very debt of your calling. I have</li>
  <li>laboured for the poor gentleman to the extremest</li>
  <li>shore of my modesty: but my brother justice have I</li>
  <li>found so severe, that he hath forced me to tell him</li>
  <li class="number">he is indeed Justice.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>If his own life answer the straitness of his</li>
  <li>proceeding, it shall become him well; wherein if he</li>
  <li>chance to fail, he hath sentenced himself.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ESCALUS</li>
  <li>I am going to visit the prisoner. Fare you well.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li class="number">Peace be with you!</li>
  <li class="stage-direction">Exeunt ESCALUS and Provost</li>
  <li>He who the sword of heaven will bear</li>
  <li>Should be as holy as severe;</li>
  <li>Pattern in himself to know,</li>
  <li>Grace to stand, and virtue go;</li>
  <li class="number">More nor less to others paying</li>
  <li>Than by self-offences weighing.</li>
  <li>Shame to him whose cruel striking</li>
  <li>Kills for faults of his own liking!</li>
  <li>Twice treble shame on Angelo,</li>
  <li class="number">To weed my vice and let his grow!</li>
  <li>O, what may man within him hide,</li>
  <li>Though angel on the outward side!</li>
  <li>How may likeness made in crimes,</li>
  <li>Making practise on the times,</li>
  <li class="number">To draw with idle spiders' strings</li>
  <li>Most ponderous and substantial things!</li>
  <li>Craft against vice I must apply:</li>
  <li>With Angelo to-night shall lie</li>
  <li>His old betrothed but despised;</li>
  <li class="number">So disguise shall, by the disguised,</li>
  <li>Pay with falsehood false exacting,</li>
  <li>And perform an old contracting.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Exit</div>

</section>

</section>

<section class="act">

<h2>ACT IV</h2>

<section class="scene">

<h3>SCENE I.  The moated grange at ST. LUKE's.</h3>

<div class="stage-direction">Enter MARIANA and a Boy</div>

<div class="stage-direction">Boy sings</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker"></li>
  <li>Take, O, take those lips away,</li>
  <li>That so sweetly were forsworn;</li>
  <li>And those eyes, the break of day,</li>
  <li>Lights that do mislead the morn:</li>
  <li class="number">But my kisses bring again, bring again;</li>
  <li>Seals of love, but sealed in vain, sealed in vain.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">MARIANA</li>
  <li>Break off thy song, and haste thee quick away:</li>
  <li>Here comes a man of comfort, whose advice</li>
  <li>Hath often still'd my brawling discontent.</li>
  <li class="stage-direction">Exit Boy</li>
  <li class="stage-direction">Enter DUKE VINCENTIO disguised as before</li>
  <li class="number">I cry you mercy, sir; and well could wish</li>
  <li>You had not found me here so musical:</li>
  <li>Let me excuse me, and believe me so,</li>
  <li>My mirth it much displeased, but pleased my woe.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>'Tis good; though music oft hath such a charm</li>
  <li class="number">To make bad good, and good provoke to harm.</li>
  <li>I pray, you, tell me, hath any body inquired</li>
  <li>for me here to-day? much upon this time have</li>
  <li>I promised here to meet.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">MARIANA</li>
  <li>You have not been inquired after:</li>
  <li class="number">I have sat here all day.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Enter ISABELLA</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>I do constantly believe you. The time is come even</li>
  <li>now. I shall crave your forbearance a little: may</li>
  <li>be I will call upon you anon, for some advantage to yourself.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">MARIANA</li>
  <li>I am always bound to you.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Exit</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li class="number">Very well met, and well come.</li>
  <li>What is the news from this good deputy?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ISABELLA</li>
  <li>He hath a garden circummured with brick,</li>
  <li>Whose western side is with a vineyard back'd;</li>
  <li>And to that vineyard is a planched gate,</li>
  <li class="number">That makes his opening with this bigger key:</li>
  <li>This other doth command a little door</li>
  <li>Which from the vineyard to the garden leads;</li>
  <li>There have I made my promise</li>
  <li>Upon the heavy middle of the night</li>
  <li class="number">To call upon him.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>But shall you on your knowledge find this way?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ISABELLA</li>
  <li>I have ta'en a due and wary note upon't:</li>
  <li>With whispering and most guilty diligence,</li>
  <li>In action all of precept, he did show me</li>
  <li class="number">The way twice o'er.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>Are there no other tokens</li>
  <li>Between you 'greed concerning her observance?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ISABELLA</li>
  <li>No, none, but only a repair i' the dark;</li>
  <li>And that I have possess'd him my most stay</li>
  <li class="number">Can be but brief; for I have made him know</li>
  <li>I have a servant comes with me along,</li>
  <li>That stays upon me, whose persuasion is</li>
  <li>I come about my brother.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>'Tis well borne up.</li>
  <li class="number">I have not yet made known to Mariana</li>
  <li>A word of this. What, ho! within! come forth!</li>
  <li class="stage-direction">Re-enter MARIANA</li>
  <li>I pray you, be acquainted with this maid;</li>
  <li>She comes to do you good.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ISABELLA</li>
  <li>I do desire the like.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li class="number">Do you persuade yourself that I respect you?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">MARIANA</li>
  <li>Good friar, I know you do, and have found it.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>Take, then, this your companion by the hand,</li>
  <li>Who hath a story ready for your ear.</li>
  <li>I shall attend your leisure: but make haste;</li>
  <li class="number">The vaporous night approaches.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">MARIANA</li>
  <li>Will't please you walk aside?</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Exeunt MARIANA and ISABELLA</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>O place and greatness! millions of false eyes</li>
  <li>Are stuck upon thee: volumes of report</li>
  <li>Run with these false and most contrarious quests</li>
  <li class="number">Upon thy doings: thousand escapes of wit</li>
  <li>Make thee the father of their idle dreams</li>
  <li>And rack thee in their fancies.</li>
  <li class="stage-direction">Re-enter MARIANA and ISABELLA</li>
  <li>Welcome, how agreed?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ISABELLA</li>
  <li>She'll take the enterprise upon her, father,</li>
  <li class="number">If you advise it.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>It is not my consent,</li>
  <li>But my entreaty too.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ISABELLA</li>
  <li>Little have you to say</li>
  <li>When you depart from him, but, soft and low,</li>
  <li class="number">'Remember now my brother.'</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">MARIANA</li>
  <li>Fear me not.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>Nor, gentle daughter, fear you not at all.</li>
  <li>He is your husband on a pre-contract:</li>
  <li>To bring you thus together, 'tis no sin,</li>
  <li class="number">Sith that the justice of your title to him</li>
  <li>Doth flourish the deceit. Come, let us go:</li>
  <li>Our corn's to reap, for yet our tithe's to sow.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Exeunt</div>

</section>

<section class="scene">

<h3>SCENE II.  A room in the prison.</h3>

<div class="stage-direction">Enter Provost and POMPEY</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Provost</li>
  <li>Come hither, sirrah. Can you cut off a man's head?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">POMPEY</li>
  <li>If the man be a bachelor, sir, I can; but if he be a</li>
  <li>married man, he's his wife's head, and I can never</li>
  <li>cut off a woman's head.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Provost</li>
  <li class="number">Come, sir, leave me your snatches, and yield me a</li>
  <li>direct answer. To-morrow morning are to die Claudio</li>
  <li>and Barnardine. Here is in our prison a common</li>
  <li>executioner, who in his office lacks a helper: if</li>
  <li>you will take it on you to assist him, it shall</li>
  <li class="number">redeem you from your gyves; if not, you shall have</li>
  <li>your full time of imprisonment and your deliverance</li>
  <li>with an unpitied whipping, for you have been a</li>
  <li>notorious bawd.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">POMPEY</li>
  <li>Sir, I have been an unlawful bawd time out of mind;</li>
  <li class="number">but yet I will be content to be a lawful hangman. I</li>
  <li>would be glad to receive some instruction from my</li>
  <li>fellow partner.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Provost</li>
  <li>What, ho! Abhorson! Where's Abhorson, there?</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Enter ABHORSON</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ABHORSON</li>
  <li>Do you call, sir?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Provost</li>
  <li class="number">Sirrah, here's a fellow will help you to-morrow in</li>
  <li>your execution. If you think it meet, compound with</li>
  <li>him by the year, and let him abide here with you; if</li>
  <li>not, use him for the present and dismiss him. He</li>
  <li>cannot plead his estimation with you; he hath been a bawd.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ABHORSON</li>
  <li class="number">A bawd, sir? fie upon him! he will discredit our mystery.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Provost</li>
  <li>Go to, sir; you weigh equally; a feather will turn</li>
  <li>the scale.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Exit</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">POMPEY</li>
  <li>Pray, sir, by your good favour —  for surely, sir, a</li>
  <li>good favour you have, but that you have a hanging</li>
  <li class="number">look —  do you call, sir, your occupation a mystery?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ABHORSON</li>
  <li>Ay, sir; a mystery</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">POMPEY</li>
  <li>Painting, sir, I have heard say, is a mystery; and</li>
  <li>your whores, sir, being members of my occupation,</li>
  <li>using painting, do prove my occupation a mystery:</li>
  <li class="number">but what mystery there should be in hanging, if I</li>
  <li>should be hanged, I cannot imagine.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ABHORSON</li>
  <li>Sir, it is a mystery.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">POMPEY</li>
  <li>Proof?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ABHORSON</li>
  <li>Every true man's apparel fits your thief: if it be</li>
  <li class="number">too little for your thief, your true man thinks it</li>
  <li>big enough; if it be too big for your thief, your</li>
  <li>thief thinks it little enough: so every true man's</li>
  <li>apparel fits your thief.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Re-enter Provost</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Provost</li>
  <li>Are you agreed?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">POMPEY</li>
  <li class="number">Sir, I will serve him; for I do find your hangman is</li>
  <li>a more penitent trade than your bawd; he doth</li>
  <li>oftener ask forgiveness.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Provost</li>
  <li>You, sirrah, provide your block and your axe</li>
  <li>to-morrow four o'clock.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ABHORSON</li>
  <li class="number">Come on, bawd; I will instruct thee in my trade; follow.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">POMPEY</li>
  <li>I do desire to learn, sir: and I hope, if you have</li>
  <li>occasion to use me for your own turn, you shall find</li>
  <li>me yare; for truly, sir, for your kindness I owe you</li>
  <li>a good turn.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Provost</li>
  <li class="number">Call hither Barnardine and Claudio:</li>
  <li class="stage-direction">Exeunt POMPEY and ABHORSON</li>
  <li>The one has my pity; not a jot the other,</li>
  <li>Being a murderer, though he were my brother.</li>
  <li class="stage-direction">Enter CLAUDIO</li>
  <li>Look, here's the warrant, Claudio, for thy death:</li>
  <li>'Tis now dead midnight, and by eight to-morrow</li>
  <li class="number">Thou must be made immortal. Where's Barnardine?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li>As fast lock'd up in sleep as guiltless labour</li>
  <li>When it lies starkly in the traveller's bones:</li>
  <li>He will not wake.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Provost</li>
  <li>Who can do good on him?</li>
  <li class="number">Well, go, prepare yourself.</li>
  <li class="stage-direction">Knocking within</li>
  <li>But, hark, what noise?</li>
  <li>Heaven give your spirits comfort!</li>
  <li class="stage-direction">Exit CLAUDIO</li>
  <li>By and by.</li>
  <li>I hope it is some pardon or reprieve</li>
  <li class="number">For the most gentle Claudio.</li>
  <li class="stage-direction">Enter DUKE VINCENTIO disguised as before</li>
  <li>Welcome father.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>The best and wholesomest spirts of the night</li>
  <li>Envelope you, good Provost! Who call'd here of late?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Provost</li>
  <li>None, since the curfew rung.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li class="number">Not Isabel?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Provost</li>
  <li>No.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>They will, then, ere't be long.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Provost</li>
  <li>What comfort is for Claudio?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>There's some in hope.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Provost</li>
  <li class="number">It is a bitter deputy.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>Not so, not so; his life is parallel'd</li>
  <li>Even with the stroke and line of his great justice:</li>
  <li>He doth with holy abstinence subdue</li>
  <li>That in himself which he spurs on his power</li>
  <li class="number">To qualify in others: were he meal'd with that</li>
  <li>Which he corrects, then were he tyrannous;</li>
  <li>But this being so, he's just.</li>
  <li class="stage-direction">Knocking within</li>
  <li>Now are they come.</li>
  <li class="stage-direction">Exit Provost</li>
  <li>This is a gentle provost: seldom when</li>
  <li class="number">The steeled gaoler is the friend of men.</li>
  <li class="stage-direction">Knocking within</li>
  <li>How now! what noise? That spirit's possessed with haste</li>
  <li>That wounds the unsisting postern with these strokes.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Re-enter Provost</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Provost</li>
  <li>There he must stay until the officer</li>
  <li>Arise to let him in: he is call'd up.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li class="number">Have you no countermand for Claudio yet,</li>
  <li>But he must die to-morrow?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Provost</li>
  <li>None, sir, none.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>As near the dawning, provost, as it is,</li>
  <li>You shall hear more ere morning.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Provost</li>
  <li class="number">Happily</li>
  <li>You something know; yet I believe there comes</li>
  <li>No countermand; no such example have we:</li>
  <li>Besides, upon the very siege of justice</li>
  <li>Lord Angelo hath to the public ear</li>
  <li class="number">Profess'd the contrary.</li>
  <li class="stage-direction">Enter a Messenger</li>
  <li>This is his lordship's man.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>And here comes Claudio's pardon.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Messenger</li>
  <li>Giving a paper</li>
  <li>My lord hath sent you this note; and by me this</li>
  <li class="number">further charge, that you swerve not from the</li>
  <li>smallest article of it, neither in time, matter, or</li>
  <li>other circumstance. Good morrow; for, as I take it,</li>
  <li>it is almost day.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Provost</li>
  <li>I shall obey him.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Exit Messenger</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li class="number">Aside  This is his pardon, purchased by such sin</li>
  <li>For which the pardoner himself is in.</li>
  <li>Hence hath offence his quick celerity,</li>
  <li>When it is born in high authority:</li>
  <li>When vice makes mercy, mercy's so extended,</li>
  <li class="number">That for the fault's love is the offender friended.</li>
  <li>Now, sir, what news?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Provost</li>
  <li>I told you. Lord Angelo, belike thinking me remiss</li>
  <li>in mine office, awakens me with this unwonted</li>
  <li>putting-on; methinks strangely, for he hath not used it before.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li class="number">Pray you, let's hear.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Provost</li>
  <li>Reads</li>
  <li>'Whatsoever you may hear to the contrary, let</li>
  <li>Claudio be executed by four of the clock; and in the</li>
  <li>afternoon Barnardine: for my better satisfaction,</li>
  <li class="number">let me have Claudio's head sent me by five. Let</li>
  <li>this be duly performed; with a thought that more</li>
  <li>depends on it than we must yet deliver. Thus fail</li>
  <li>not to do your office, as you will answer it at your peril.'</li>
  <li>What say you to this, sir?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li class="number">What is that Barnardine who is to be executed in the</li>
  <li>afternoon?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Provost</li>
  <li>A Bohemian born, but here nursed un and bred; one</li>
  <li>that is a prisoner nine years old.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>How came it that the absent duke had not either</li>
  <li class="number">delivered him to his liberty or executed him? I</li>
  <li>have heard it was ever his manner to do so.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Provost</li>
  <li>His friends still wrought reprieves for him: and,</li>
  <li>indeed, his fact, till now in the government of Lord</li>
  <li>Angelo, came not to an undoubtful proof.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li class="number">It is now apparent?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Provost</li>
  <li>Most manifest, and not denied by himself.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>Hath he born himself penitently in prison? how</li>
  <li>seems he to be touched?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Provost</li>
  <li>A man that apprehends death no more dreadfully but</li>
  <li class="number">as a drunken sleep; careless, reckless, and fearless</li>
  <li>of what's past, present, or to come; insensible of</li>
  <li>mortality, and desperately mortal.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>He wants advice.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Provost</li>
  <li>He will hear none: he hath evermore had the liberty</li>
  <li class="number">of the prison; give him leave to escape hence, he</li>
  <li>would not: drunk many times a day, if not many days</li>
  <li>entirely drunk. We have very oft awaked him, as if</li>
  <li>to carry him to execution, and showed him a seeming</li>
  <li>warrant for it: it hath not moved him at all.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li class="number">More of him anon. There is written in your brow,</li>
  <li>provost, honesty and constancy: if I read it not</li>
  <li>truly, my ancient skill beguiles me; but, in the</li>
  <li>boldness of my cunning, I will lay myself in hazard.</li>
  <li>Claudio, whom here you have warrant to execute, is</li>
  <li class="number">no greater forfeit to the law than Angelo who hath</li>
  <li>sentenced him. To make you understand this in a</li>
  <li>manifested effect, I crave but four days' respite;</li>
  <li>for the which you are to do me both a present and a</li>
  <li>dangerous courtesy.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Provost</li>
  <li class="number">Pray, sir, in what?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>In the delaying death.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Provost</li>
  <li>A lack, how may I do it, having the hour limited,</li>
  <li>and an express command, under penalty, to deliver</li>
  <li>his head in the view of Angelo? I may make my case</li>
  <li class="number">as Claudio's, to cross this in the smallest.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>By the vow of mine order I warrant you, if my</li>
  <li>instructions may be your guide. Let this Barnardine</li>
  <li>be this morning executed, and his head born to Angelo.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Provost</li>
  <li>Angelo hath seen them both, and will discover the favour.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li class="number">O, death's a great disguiser; and you may add to it.</li>
  <li>Shave the head, and tie the beard; and say it was</li>
  <li>the desire of the penitent to be so bared before his</li>
  <li>death: you know the course is common. If any thing</li>
  <li>fall to you upon this, more than thanks and good</li>
  <li class="number">fortune, by the saint whom I profess, I will plead</li>
  <li>against it with my life.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Provost</li>
  <li>Pardon me, good father; it is against my oath.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>Were you sworn to the duke, or to the deputy?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Provost</li>
  <li>To him, and to his substitutes.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li class="number">You will think you have made no offence, if the duke</li>
  <li>avouch the justice of your dealing?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Provost</li>
  <li>But what likelihood is in that?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>Not a resemblance, but a certainty. Yet since I see</li>
  <li>you fearful, that neither my coat, integrity, nor</li>
  <li class="number">persuasion can with ease attempt you, I will go</li>
  <li>further than I meant, to pluck all fears out of you.</li>
  <li>Look you, sir, here is the hand and seal of the</li>
  <li>duke: you know the character, I doubt not; and the</li>
  <li>signet is not strange to you.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Provost</li>
  <li class="number">I know them both.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>The contents of this is the return of the duke: you</li>
  <li>shall anon over-read it at your pleasure; where you</li>
  <li>shall find, within these two days he will be here.</li>
  <li>This is a thing that Angelo knows not; for he this</li>
  <li class="number">very day receives letters of strange tenor;</li>
  <li>perchance of the duke's death; perchance entering</li>
  <li>into some monastery; but, by chance, nothing of what</li>
  <li>is writ. Look, the unfolding star calls up the</li>
  <li>shepherd. Put not yourself into amazement how these</li>
  <li class="number">things should be: all difficulties are but easy</li>
  <li>when they are known. Call your executioner, and off</li>
  <li>with Barnardine's head: I will give him a present</li>
  <li>shrift and advise him for a better place. Yet you</li>
  <li>are amazed; but this shall absolutely resolve you.</li>
  <li class="number">Come away; it is almost clear dawn.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Exeunt</div>

</section>

<section class="scene">

<h3>SCENE III.  Another room in the same.</h3>

<div class="stage-direction">Enter POMPEY</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">POMPEY</li>
  <li>I am as well acquainted here as I was in our house</li>
  <li>of profession: one would think it were Mistress</li>
  <li>Overdone's own house, for here be many of her old</li>
  <li>customers. First, here's young Master Rash; he's in</li>
  <li class="number">for a commodity of brown paper and old ginger,</li>
  <li>ninescore and seventeen pounds; of which he made</li>
  <li>five marks, ready money: marry, then ginger was not</li>
  <li>much in request, for the old women were all dead.</li>
  <li>Then is there here one Master Caper, at the suit of</li>
  <li class="number">Master Three-pile the mercer, for some four suits of</li>
  <li>peach-coloured satin, which now peaches him a</li>
  <li>beggar. Then have we here young Dizy, and young</li>
  <li>Master Deep-vow, and Master Copperspur, and Master</li>
  <li>Starve-lackey the rapier and dagger man, and young</li>
  <li class="number">Drop-heir that killed lusty Pudding, and Master</li>
  <li>Forthlight the tilter, and brave Master Shooty the</li>
  <li>great traveller, and wild Half-can that stabbed</li>
  <li>Pots, and, I think, forty more; all great doers in</li>
  <li>our trade, and are now 'for the Lord's sake.'</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Enter ABHORSON</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ABHORSON</li>
  <li class="number">Sirrah, bring Barnardine hither.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">POMPEY</li>
  <li>Master Barnardine! you must rise and be hanged.</li>
  <li>Master Barnardine!</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ABHORSON</li>
  <li>What, ho, Barnardine!</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BARNARDINE</li>
  <li>Within  A pox o' your throats! Who makes that</li>
  <li class="number">noise there? What are you?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">POMPEY</li>
  <li>Your friends, sir; the hangman. You must be so</li>
  <li>good, sir, to rise and be put to death.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BARNARDINE</li>
  <li>Within  Away, you rogue, away! I am sleepy.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ABHORSON</li>
  <li>Tell him he must awake, and that quickly too.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">POMPEY</li>
  <li class="number">Pray, Master Barnardine, awake till you are</li>
  <li>executed, and sleep afterwards.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ABHORSON</li>
  <li>Go in to him, and fetch him out.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">POMPEY</li>
  <li>He is coming, sir, he is coming; I hear his straw rustle.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ABHORSON</li>
  <li>Is the axe upon the block, sirrah?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">POMPEY</li>
  <li class="number">Very ready, sir.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Enter BARNARDINE</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BARNARDINE</li>
  <li>How now, Abhorson? what's the news with you?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ABHORSON</li>
  <li>Truly, sir, I would desire you to clap into your</li>
  <li>prayers; for, look you, the warrant's come.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BARNARDINE</li>
  <li>You rogue, I have been drinking all night; I am not</li>
  <li class="number">fitted for 't.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">POMPEY</li>
  <li>O, the better, sir; for he that drinks all night,</li>
  <li>and is hanged betimes in the morning, may sleep the</li>
  <li>sounder all the next day.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ABHORSON</li>
  <li>Look you, sir; here comes your ghostly father: do</li>
  <li class="number">we jest now, think you?</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Enter DUKE VINCENTIO disguised as before</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>Sir, induced by my charity, and hearing how hastily</li>
  <li>you are to depart, I am come to advise you, comfort</li>
  <li>you and pray with you.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BARNARDINE</li>
  <li>Friar, not I I have been drinking hard all night,</li>
  <li class="number">and I will have more time to prepare me, or they</li>
  <li>shall beat out my brains with billets: I will not</li>
  <li>consent to die this day, that's certain.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>O, sir, you must: and therefore I beseech you</li>
  <li>Look forward on the journey you shall go.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BARNARDINE</li>
  <li class="number">I swear I will not die to-day for any man's</li>
  <li>persuasion.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>But hear you.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BARNARDINE</li>
  <li>Not a word: if you have any thing to say to me,</li>
  <li>come to my ward; for thence will not I to-day.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Exit</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li class="number">Unfit to live or die: O gravel heart!</li>
  <li>After him, fellows; bring him to the block.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Exeunt ABHORSON and POMPEY</div>

<div class="stage-direction">Re-enter Provost</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Provost</li>
  <li>Now, sir, how do you find the prisoner?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>A creature unprepared, unmeet for death;</li>
  <li>And to transport him in the mind he is</li>
  <li class="number">Were damnable.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Provost</li>
  <li>Here in the prison, father,</li>
  <li>There died this morning of a cruel fever</li>
  <li>One Ragozine, a most notorious pirate,</li>
  <li>A man of Claudio's years; his beard and head</li>
  <li class="number">Just of his colour. What if we do omit</li>
  <li>This reprobate till he were well inclined;</li>
  <li>And satisfy the deputy with the visage</li>
  <li>Of Ragozine, more like to Claudio?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>O, 'tis an accident that heaven provides!</li>
  <li class="number">Dispatch it presently; the hour draws on</li>
  <li>Prefix'd by Angelo: see this be done,</li>
  <li>And sent according to command; whiles I</li>
  <li>Persuade this rude wretch willingly to die.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Provost</li>
  <li>This shall be done, good father, presently.</li>
  <li class="number">But Barnardine must die this afternoon:</li>
  <li>And how shall we continue Claudio,</li>
  <li>To save me from the danger that might come</li>
  <li>If he were known alive?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>Let this be done.</li>
  <li class="number">Put them in secret holds, both Barnardine and Claudio:</li>
  <li>Ere twice the sun hath made his journal greeting</li>
  <li>To the under generation, you shall find</li>
  <li>Your safety manifested.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Provost</li>
  <li>I am your free dependant.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li class="number">Quick, dispatch, and send the head to Angelo.</li>
  <li class="stage-direction">Exit Provost</li>
  <li>Now will I write letters to Angelo —  </li>
  <li>The provost, he shall bear them, whose contents</li>
  <li>Shall witness to him I am near at home,</li>
  <li>And that, by great injunctions, I am bound</li>
  <li class="number">To enter publicly: him I'll desire</li>
  <li>To meet me at the consecrated fount</li>
  <li>A league below the city; and from thence,</li>
  <li>By cold gradation and well-balanced form,</li>
  <li>We shall proceed with Angelo.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Re-enter Provost</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Provost</li>
  <li class="number">Here is the head; I'll carry it myself.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>Convenient is it. Make a swift return;</li>
  <li>For I would commune with you of such things</li>
  <li>That want no ear but yours.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Provost</li>
  <li>I'll make all speed.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Exit</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ISABELLA</li>
  <li class="number">Within  Peace, ho, be here!</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>The tongue of Isabel. She's come to know</li>
  <li>If yet her brother's pardon be come hither:</li>
  <li>But I will keep her ignorant of her good,</li>
  <li>To make her heavenly comforts of despair,</li>
  <li class="number">When it is least expected.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Enter ISABELLA</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ISABELLA</li>
  <li>Ho, by your leave!</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>Good morning to you, fair and gracious daughter.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ISABELLA</li>
  <li>The better, given me by so holy a man.</li>
  <li>Hath yet the deputy sent my brother's pardon?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li class="number">He hath released him, Isabel, from the world:</li>
  <li>His head is off and sent to Angelo.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ISABELLA</li>
  <li>Nay, but it is not so.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>It is no other: show your wisdom, daughter,</li>
  <li>In your close patience.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ISABELLA</li>
  <li class="number">O, I will to him and pluck out his eyes!</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>You shall not be admitted to his sight.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ISABELLA</li>
  <li>Unhappy Claudio! wretched Isabel!</li>
  <li>Injurious world! most damned Angelo!</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>This nor hurts him nor profits you a jot;</li>
  <li class="number">Forbear it therefore; give your cause to heaven.</li>
  <li>Mark what I say, which you shall find</li>
  <li>By every syllable a faithful verity:</li>
  <li>The duke comes home to-morrow; nay, dry your eyes;</li>
  <li>One of our convent, and his confessor,</li>
  <li class="number">Gives me this instance: already he hath carried</li>
  <li>Notice to Escalus and Angelo,</li>
  <li>Who do prepare to meet him at the gates,</li>
  <li>There to give up their power. If you can, pace your wisdom</li>
  <li>In that good path that I would wish it go,</li>
  <li class="number">And you shall have your bosom on this wretch,</li>
  <li>Grace of the duke, revenges to your heart,</li>
  <li>And general honour.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ISABELLA</li>
  <li>I am directed by you.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>This letter, then, to Friar Peter give;</li>
  <li class="number">'Tis that he sent me of the duke's return:</li>
  <li>Say, by this token, I desire his company</li>
  <li>At Mariana's house to-night. Her cause and yours</li>
  <li>I'll perfect him withal, and he shall bring you</li>
  <li>Before the duke, and to the head of Angelo</li>
  <li class="number">Accuse him home and home. For my poor self,</li>
  <li>I am combined by a sacred vow</li>
  <li>And shall be absent. Wend you with this letter:</li>
  <li>Command these fretting waters from your eyes</li>
  <li>With a light heart; trust not my holy order,</li>
  <li class="number">If I pervert your course. Who's here?</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Enter LUCIO</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIO</li>
  <li>Good even. Friar, where's the provost?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>Not within, sir.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIO</li>
  <li>O pretty Isabella, I am pale at mine heart to see</li>
  <li>thine eyes so red: thou must be patient. I am fain</li>
  <li class="number">to dine and sup with water and bran; I dare not for</li>
  <li>my head fill my belly; one fruitful meal would set</li>
  <li>me to 't. But they say the duke will be here</li>
  <li>to-morrow. By my troth, Isabel, I loved thy brother:</li>
  <li>if the old fantastical duke of dark corners had been</li>
  <li class="number">at home, he had lived.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Exit ISABELLA</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>Sir, the duke is marvellous little beholding to your</li>
  <li>reports; but the best is, he lives not in them.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIO</li>
  <li>Friar, thou knowest not the duke so well as I do:</li>
  <li>he's a better woodman than thou takest him for.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li class="number">Well, you'll answer this one day. Fare ye well.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIO</li>
  <li>Nay, tarry; I'll go along with thee</li>
  <li>I can tell thee pretty tales of the duke.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>You have told me too many of him already, sir, if</li>
  <li>they be true; if not true, none were enough.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIO</li>
  <li class="number">I was once before him for getting a wench with child.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>Did you such a thing?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIO</li>
  <li>Yes, marry, did I but I was fain to forswear it;</li>
  <li>they would else have married me to the rotten medlar.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>Sir, your company is fairer than honest. Rest you well.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIO</li>
  <li class="number">By my troth, I'll go with thee to the lane's end:</li>
  <li>if bawdy talk offend you, we'll have very little of</li>
  <li>it. Nay, friar, I am a kind of burr; I shall stick.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Exeunt</div>

</section>

<section class="scene">

<h3>SCENE IV.  A room in ANGELO's house.</h3>

<div class="stage-direction">Enter ANGELO and ESCALUS</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ESCALUS</li>
  <li>Every letter he hath writ hath disvouched other.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANGELO</li>
  <li>In most uneven and distracted manner. His actions</li>
  <li>show much like to madness: pray heaven his wisdom be</li>
  <li>not tainted! And why meet him at the gates, and</li>
  <li class="number">redeliver our authorities there</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ESCALUS</li>
  <li>I guess not.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANGELO</li>
  <li>And why should we proclaim it in an hour before his</li>
  <li>entering, that if any crave redress of injustice,</li>
  <li>they should exhibit their petitions in the street?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ESCALUS</li>
  <li class="number">He shows his reason for that: to have a dispatch of</li>
  <li>complaints, and to deliver us from devices</li>
  <li>hereafter, which shall then have no power to stand</li>
  <li>against us.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANGELO</li>
  <li>Well, I beseech you, let it be proclaimed betimes</li>
  <li class="number">i' the morn; I'll call you at your house: give</li>
  <li>notice to such men of sort and suit as are to meet</li>
  <li>him.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ESCALUS</li>
  <li>I shall, sir. Fare you well.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANGELO</li>
  <li>Good night.</li>
  <li class="stage-direction">Exit ESCALUS</li>
  <li class="number">This deed unshapes me quite, makes me unpregnant</li>
  <li>And dull to all proceedings. A deflower'd maid!</li>
  <li>And by an eminent body that enforced</li>
  <li>The law against it! But that her tender shame</li>
  <li>Will not proclaim against her maiden loss,</li>
  <li class="number">How might she tongue me! Yet reason dares her no;</li>
  <li>For my authority bears of a credent bulk,</li>
  <li>That no particular scandal once can touch</li>
  <li>But it confounds the breather. He should have lived,</li>
  <li>Save that riotous youth, with dangerous sense,</li>
  <li class="number">Might in the times to come have ta'en revenge,</li>
  <li>By so receiving a dishonour'd life</li>
  <li>With ransom of such shame. Would yet he had lived!</li>
  <li>A lack, when once our grace we have forgot,</li>
  <li>Nothing goes right: we would, and we would not.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Exit</div>

</section>

<section class="scene">

<h3>SCENE V.  Fields without the town.</h3>

<div class="stage-direction">Enter DUKE VINCENTIO in his own habit, and FRIAR PETER</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>These letters at fit time deliver me</li>
  <li class="stage-direction">Giving letters</li>
  <li>The provost knows our purpose and our plot.</li>
  <li>The matter being afoot, keep your instruction,</li>
  <li>And hold you ever to our special drift;</li>
  <li class="number">Though sometimes you do blench from this to that,</li>
  <li>As cause doth minister. Go call at Flavius' house,</li>
  <li>And tell him where I stay: give the like notice</li>
  <li>To Valentinus, Rowland, and to Crassus,</li>
  <li>And bid them bring the trumpets to the gate;</li>
  <li class="number">But send me Flavius first.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">FRIAR PETER</li>
  <li>It shall be speeded well.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Exit</div>

<div class="stage-direction">Enter VARRIUS</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>I thank thee, Varrius; thou hast made good haste:</li>
  <li>Come, we will walk. There's other of our friends</li>
  <li>Will greet us here anon, my gentle Varrius.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Exeunt</div>

</section>

<section class="scene">

<h3>SCENE VI.  Street near the city gate.</h3>

<div class="stage-direction">Enter ISABELLA and MARIANA</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ISABELLA</li>
  <li>To speak so indirectly I am loath:</li>
  <li>I would say the truth; but to accuse him so,</li>
  <li>That is your part: yet I am advised to do it;</li>
  <li>He says, to veil full purpose.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">MARIANA</li>
  <li class="number">Be ruled by him.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ISABELLA</li>
  <li>Besides, he tells me that, if peradventure</li>
  <li>He speak against me on the adverse side,</li>
  <li>I should not think it strange; for 'tis a physic</li>
  <li>That's bitter to sweet end.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">MARIANA</li>
  <li class="number">I would Friar Peter — </li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ISABELLA</li>
  <li>O, peace! the friar is come.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Enter FRIAR PETER</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">FRIAR PETER</li>
  <li>Come, I have found you out a stand most fit,</li>
  <li>Where you may have such vantage on the duke,</li>
  <li>He shall not pass you. Twice have the trumpets sounded;</li>
  <li class="number">The generous and gravest citizens</li>
  <li>Have hent the gates, and very near upon</li>
  <li>The duke is entering: therefore, hence, away!</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Exeunt</div>

</section>

</section>

<section class="act">

<h2>ACT V</h2>

<section class="scene">

<h3>SCENE I.  The city gate.</h3>

<div class="stage-direction">MARIANA veiled, ISABELLA, and FRIAR PETER, at their
stand. Enter DUKE VINCENTIO, VARRIUS, Lords,
ANGELO, ESCALUS, LUCIO, Provost, Officers, and
Citizens, at several doors</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>My very worthy cousin, fairly met!</li>
  <li>Our old and faithful friend, we are glad to see you.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANGELO</li>
  <li class="speaker">ESCALUS</li>
  <li>Happy return be to your royal grace!</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>Many and hearty thankings to you both.</li>
  <li class="number">We have made inquiry of you; and we hear</li>
  <li>Such goodness of your justice, that our soul</li>
  <li>Cannot but yield you forth to public thanks,</li>
  <li>Forerunning more requital.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANGELO</li>
  <li>You make my bonds still greater.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li class="number">O, your desert speaks loud; and I should wrong it,</li>
  <li>To lock it in the wards of covert bosom,</li>
  <li>When it deserves, with characters of brass,</li>
  <li>A forted residence 'gainst the tooth of time</li>
  <li>And razure of oblivion. Give me your hand,</li>
  <li class="number">And let the subject see, to make them know</li>
  <li>That outward courtesies would fain proclaim</li>
  <li>Favours that keep within. Come, Escalus,</li>
  <li>You must walk by us on our other hand;</li>
  <li>And good supporters are you.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">FRIAR PETER and ISABELLA come forward</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">FRIAR PETER</li>
  <li class="number">Now is your time: speak loud and kneel before him.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ISABELLA</li>
  <li>Justice, O royal duke! Vail your regard</li>
  <li>Upon a wrong'd, I would fain have said, a maid!</li>
  <li>O worthy prince, dishonour not your eye</li>
  <li>By throwing it on any other object</li>
  <li class="number">Till you have heard me in my true complaint</li>
  <li>And given me justice, justice, justice, justice!</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>Relate your wrongs; in what? by whom? be brief.</li>
  <li>Here is Lord Angelo shall give you justice:</li>
  <li>Reveal yourself to him.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ISABELLA</li>
  <li class="number">O worthy duke,</li>
  <li>You bid me seek redemption of the devil:</li>
  <li>Hear me yourself; for that which I must speak</li>
  <li>Must either punish me, not being believed,</li>
  <li>Or wring redress from you. Hear me, O hear me, here!</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANGELO</li>
  <li class="number">My lord, her wits, I fear me, are not firm:</li>
  <li>She hath been a suitor to me for her brother</li>
  <li>Cut off by course of justice —  </li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ISABELLA</li>
  <li>By course of justice!</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANGELO</li>
  <li>And she will speak most bitterly and strange.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ISABELLA</li>
  <li class="number">Most strange, but yet most truly, will I speak:</li>
  <li>That Angelo's forsworn; is it not strange?</li>
  <li>That Angelo's a murderer; is 't not strange?</li>
  <li>That Angelo is an adulterous thief,</li>
  <li>An hypocrite, a virgin-violator;</li>
  <li class="number">Is it not strange and strange?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>Nay, it is ten times strange.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ISABELLA</li>
  <li>It is not truer he is Angelo</li>
  <li>Than this is all as true as it is strange:</li>
  <li>Nay, it is ten times true; for truth is truth</li>
  <li class="number">To the end of reckoning.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>Away with her! Poor soul,</li>
  <li>She speaks this in the infirmity of sense.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ISABELLA</li>
  <li>O prince, I conjure thee, as thou believest</li>
  <li>There is another comfort than this world,</li>
  <li class="number">That thou neglect me not, with that opinion</li>
  <li>That I am touch'd with madness! Make not impossible</li>
  <li>That which but seems unlike: 'tis not impossible</li>
  <li>But one, the wicked'st caitiff on the ground,</li>
  <li>May seem as shy, as grave, as just, as absolute</li>
  <li class="number">As Angelo; even so may Angelo,</li>
  <li>In all his dressings, characts, titles, forms,</li>
  <li>Be an arch-villain; believe it, royal prince:</li>
  <li>If he be less, he's nothing; but he's more,</li>
  <li>Had I more name for badness.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li class="number">By mine honesty,</li>
  <li>If she be mad —  as I believe no other —  </li>
  <li>Her madness hath the oddest frame of sense,</li>
  <li>Such a dependency of thing on thing,</li>
  <li>As e'er I heard in madness.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ISABELLA</li>
  <li class="number">O gracious duke,</li>
  <li>Harp not on that, nor do not banish reason</li>
  <li>For inequality; but let your reason serve</li>
  <li>To make the truth appear where it seems hid,</li>
  <li>And hide the false seems true.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li class="number">Many that are not mad</li>
  <li>Have, sure, more lack of reason. What would you say?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ISABELLA</li>
  <li>I am the sister of one Claudio,</li>
  <li>Condemn'd upon the act of fornication</li>
  <li>To lose his head; condemn'd by Angelo:</li>
  <li class="number">I, in probation of a sisterhood,</li>
  <li>Was sent to by my brother; one Lucio</li>
  <li>As then the messenger —  </li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIO</li>
  <li>That's I, an't like your grace:</li>
  <li>I came to her from Claudio, and desired her</li>
  <li class="number">To try her gracious fortune with Lord Angelo</li>
  <li>For her poor brother's pardon.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ISABELLA</li>
  <li>That's he indeed.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>You were not bid to speak.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIO</li>
  <li>No, my good lord;</li>
  <li class="number">Nor wish'd to hold my peace.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>I wish you now, then;</li>
  <li>Pray you, take note of it: and when you have</li>
  <li>A business for yourself, pray heaven you then</li>
  <li>Be perfect.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIO</li>
  <li class="number">I warrant your honour.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>The warrants for yourself; take heed to't.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ISABELLA</li>
  <li>This gentleman told somewhat of my tale —  </li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIO</li>
  <li>Right.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>It may be right; but you are i' the wrong</li>
  <li class="number">To speak before your time. Proceed.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ISABELLA</li>
  <li>I went</li>
  <li>To this pernicious caitiff deputy —  </li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>That's somewhat madly spoken.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ISABELLA</li>
  <li>Pardon it;</li>
  <li class="number">The phrase is to the matter.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>Mended again. The matter; proceed.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ISABELLA</li>
  <li>In brief, to set the needless process by,</li>
  <li>How I persuaded, how I pray'd, and kneel'd,</li>
  <li>How he refell'd me, and how I replied —  </li>
  <li class="number">For this was of much length —  the vile conclusion</li>
  <li>I now begin with grief and shame to utter:</li>
  <li>He would not, but by gift of my chaste body</li>
  <li>To his concupiscible intemperate lust,</li>
  <li>Release my brother; and, after much debatement,</li>
  <li class="number">My sisterly remorse confutes mine honour,</li>
  <li>And I did yield to him: but the next morn betimes,</li>
  <li>His purpose surfeiting, he sends a warrant</li>
  <li>For my poor brother's head.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>This is most likely!</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ISABELLA</li>
  <li class="number">O, that it were as like as it is true!</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>By heaven, fond wretch, thou knowist not what thou speak'st,</li>
  <li>Or else thou art suborn'd against his honour</li>
  <li>In hateful practise. First, his integrity</li>
  <li>Stands without blemish. Next, it imports no reason</li>
  <li class="number">That with such vehemency he should pursue</li>
  <li>Faults proper to himself: if he had so offended,</li>
  <li>He would have weigh'd thy brother by himself</li>
  <li>And not have cut him off. Some one hath set you on:</li>
  <li>Confess the truth, and say by whose advice</li>
  <li class="number">Thou camest here to complain.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ISABELLA</li>
  <li>And is this all?</li>
  <li>Then, O you blessed ministers above,</li>
  <li>Keep me in patience, and with ripen'd time</li>
  <li>Unfold the evil which is here wrapt up</li>
  <li class="number">In countenance! Heaven shield your grace from woe,</li>
  <li>As I, thus wrong'd, hence unbelieved go!</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>I know you'ld fain be gone. An officer!</li>
  <li>To prison with her! Shall we thus permit</li>
  <li>A blasting and a scandalous breath to fall</li>
  <li class="number">On him so near us? This needs must be a practise.</li>
  <li>Who knew of Your intent and coming hither?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ISABELLA</li>
  <li>One that I would were here, Friar Lodowick.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>A ghostly father, belike. Who knows that Lodowick?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIO</li>
  <li>My lord, I know him; 'tis a meddling friar;</li>
  <li class="number">I do not like the man: had he been lay, my lord</li>
  <li>For certain words he spake against your grace</li>
  <li>In your retirement, I had swinged him soundly.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>Words against me? this is a good friar, belike!</li>
  <li>And to set on this wretched woman here</li>
  <li class="number">Against our substitute! Let this friar be found.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIO</li>
  <li>But yesternight, my lord, she and that friar,</li>
  <li>I saw them at the prison: a saucy friar,</li>
  <li>A very scurvy fellow.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">FRIAR PETER</li>
  <li>Blessed be your royal grace!</li>
  <li class="number">I have stood by, my lord, and I have heard</li>
  <li>Your royal ear abused. First, hath this woman</li>
  <li>Most wrongfully accused your substitute,</li>
  <li>Who is as free from touch or soil with her</li>
  <li>As she from one ungot.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li class="number">We did believe no less.</li>
  <li>Know you that Friar Lodowick that she speaks of?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">FRIAR PETER</li>
  <li>I know him for a man divine and holy;</li>
  <li>Not scurvy, nor a temporary meddler,</li>
  <li>As he's reported by this gentleman;</li>
  <li class="number">And, on my trust, a man that never yet</li>
  <li>Did, as he vouches, misreport your grace.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIO</li>
  <li>My lord, most villanously; believe it.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">FRIAR PETER</li>
  <li>Well, he in time may come to clear himself;</li>
  <li>But at this instant he is sick my lord,</li>
  <li class="number">Of a strange fever. Upon his mere request,</li>
  <li>Being come to knowledge that there was complaint</li>
  <li>Intended 'gainst Lord Angelo, came I hither,</li>
  <li>To speak, as from his mouth, what he doth know</li>
  <li>Is true and false; and what he with his oath</li>
  <li class="number">And all probation will make up full clear,</li>
  <li>Whensoever he's convented. First, for this woman.</li>
  <li>To justify this worthy nobleman,</li>
  <li>So vulgarly and personally accused,</li>
  <li>Her shall you hear disproved to her eyes,</li>
  <li class="number">Till she herself confess it.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>Good friar, let's hear it.</li>
  <li class="stage-direction">ISABELLA is carried off guarded; and MARIANA comes forward</li>
  <li>Do you not smile at this, Lord Angelo?</li>
  <li>O heaven, the vanity of wretched fools!</li>
  <li>Give us some seats. Come, cousin Angelo;</li>
  <li class="number">In this I'll be impartial; be you judge</li>
  <li>Of your own cause. Is this the witness, friar?</li>
  <li>First, let her show her face, and after speak.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">MARIANA</li>
  <li>Pardon, my lord; I will not show my face</li>
  <li>Until my husband bid me.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li class="number">What, are you married?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">MARIANA</li>
  <li>No, my lord.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>Are you a maid?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">MARIANA</li>
  <li>No, my lord.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>A widow, then?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">MARIANA</li>
  <li class="number">Neither, my lord.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>Why, you are nothing then: neither maid, widow, nor wife?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIO</li>
  <li>My lord, she may be a punk; for many of them are</li>
  <li>neither maid, widow, nor wife.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>Silence that fellow: I would he had some cause</li>
  <li class="number">To prattle for himself.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIO</li>
  <li>Well, my lord.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">MARIANA</li>
  <li>My lord; I do confess I ne'er was married;</li>
  <li>And I confess besides I am no maid:</li>
  <li>I have known my husband; yet my husband</li>
  <li class="number">Knows not that ever he knew me.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIO</li>
  <li>He was drunk then, my lord: it can be no better.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>For the benefit of silence, would thou wert so too!</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIO</li>
  <li>Well, my lord.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>This is no witness for Lord Angelo.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">MARIANA</li>
  <li class="number">Now I come to't my lord</li>
  <li>She that accuses him of fornication,</li>
  <li>In self-same manner doth accuse my husband,</li>
  <li>And charges him my lord, with such a time</li>
  <li>When I'll depose I had him in mine arms</li>
  <li class="number">With all the effect of love.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANGELO</li>
  <li>Charges she more than me?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">MARIANA</li>
  <li>Not that I know.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>No? you say your husband.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">MARIANA</li>
  <li>Why, just, my lord, and that is Angelo,</li>
  <li class="number">Who thinks he knows that he ne'er knew my body,</li>
  <li>But knows he thinks that he knows Isabel's.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANGELO</li>
  <li>This is a strange abuse. Let's see thy face.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">MARIANA</li>
  <li>My husband bids me; now I will unmask.</li>
  <li class="stage-direction">Unveiling</li>
  <li>This is that face, thou cruel Angelo,</li>
  <li class="number">Which once thou sworest was worth the looking on;</li>
  <li>This is the hand which, with a vow'd contract,</li>
  <li>Was fast belock'd in thine; this is the body</li>
  <li>That took away the match from Isabel,</li>
  <li>And did supply thee at thy garden-house</li>
  <li class="number">In her imagined person.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>Know you this woman?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIO</li>
  <li>Carnally, she says.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>Sirrah, no more!</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIO</li>
  <li>Enough, my lord.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANGELO</li>
  <li class="number">My lord, I must confess I know this woman:</li>
  <li>And five years since there was some speech of marriage</li>
  <li>Betwixt myself and her; which was broke off,</li>
  <li>Partly for that her promised proportions</li>
  <li>Came short of composition, but in chief</li>
  <li class="number">For that her reputation was disvalued</li>
  <li>In levity: since which time of five years</li>
  <li>I never spake with her, saw her, nor heard from her,</li>
  <li>Upon my faith and honour.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">MARIANA</li>
  <li>Noble prince,</li>
  <li class="number">As there comes light from heaven and words from breath,</li>
  <li>As there is sense in truth and truth in virtue,</li>
  <li>I am affianced this man's wife as strongly</li>
  <li>As words could make up vows: and, my good lord,</li>
  <li>But Tuesday night last gone in's garden-house</li>
  <li class="number">He knew me as a wife. As this is true,</li>
  <li>Let me in safety raise me from my knees</li>
  <li>Or else for ever be confixed here,</li>
  <li>A marble monument!</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANGELO</li>
  <li>I did but smile till now:</li>
  <li class="number">Now, good my lord, give me the scope of justice</li>
  <li>My patience here is touch'd. I do perceive</li>
  <li>These poor informal women are no more</li>
  <li>But instruments of some more mightier member</li>
  <li>That sets them on: let me have way, my lord,</li>
  <li class="number">To find this practise out.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>Ay, with my heart</li>
  <li>And punish them to your height of pleasure.</li>
  <li>Thou foolish friar, and thou pernicious woman,</li>
  <li>Compact with her that's gone, think'st thou thy oaths,</li>
  <li class="number">Though they would swear down each particular saint,</li>
  <li>Were testimonies against his worth and credit</li>
  <li>That's seal'd in approbation? You, Lord Escalus,</li>
  <li>Sit with my cousin; lend him your kind pains</li>
  <li>To find out this abuse, whence 'tis derived.</li>
  <li class="number">There is another friar that set them on;</li>
  <li>Let him be sent for.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">FRIAR PETER</li>
  <li>Would he were here, my lord! for he indeed</li>
  <li>Hath set the women on to this complaint:</li>
  <li>Your provost knows the place where he abides</li>
  <li class="number">And he may fetch him.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>Go do it instantly.</li>
  <li class="stage-direction">Exit Provost</li>
  <li>And you, my noble and well-warranted cousin,</li>
  <li>Whom it concerns to hear this matter forth,</li>
  <li>Do with your injuries as seems you best,</li>
  <li class="number">In any chastisement: I for a while will leave you;</li>
  <li>But stir not you till you have well determined</li>
  <li>Upon these slanderers.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ESCALUS</li>
  <li>My lord, we'll do it throughly.</li>
  <li class="stage-direction">Exit DUKE</li>
  <li>Signior Lucio, did not you say you knew that</li>
  <li class="number">Friar Lodowick to be a dishonest person?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIO</li>
  <li>'Cucullus non facit monachum:' honest in nothing</li>
  <li>but in his clothes; and one that hath spoke most</li>
  <li>villanous speeches of the duke.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ESCALUS</li>
  <li>We shall entreat you to abide here till he come and</li>
  <li class="number">enforce them against him: we shall find this friar a</li>
  <li>notable fellow.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIO</li>
  <li>As any in Vienna, on my word.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ESCALUS</li>
  <li>Call that same Isabel here once again; I would speak with her.</li>
  <li class="stage-direction">Exit an Attendant</li>
  <li>Pray you, my lord, give me leave to question; you</li>
  <li class="number">shall see how I'll handle her.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIO</li>
  <li>Not better than he, by her own report.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ESCALUS</li>
  <li>Say you?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIO</li>
  <li>Marry, sir, I think, if you handled her privately,</li>
  <li>she would sooner confess: perchance, publicly,</li>
  <li class="number">she'll be ashamed.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ESCALUS</li>
  <li>I will go darkly to work with her.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIO</li>
  <li>That's the way; for women are light at midnight.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Re-enter Officers with ISABELLA; and Provost with
the DUKE VINCENTIO in his friar's habit</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ESCALUS</li>
  <li>Come on, mistress: here's a gentlewoman denies all</li>
  <li>that you have said.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIO</li>
  <li class="number">My lord, here comes the rascal I spoke of; here with</li>
  <li>the provost.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ESCALUS</li>
  <li>In very good time: speak not you to him till we</li>
  <li>call upon you.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIO</li>
  <li>Mum.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ESCALUS</li>
  <li class="number">Come, sir: did you set these women on to slander</li>
  <li>Lord Angelo? they have confessed you did.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>'Tis false.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ESCALUS</li>
  <li>How! know you where you are?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>Respect to your great place! and let the devil</li>
  <li class="number">Be sometime honour'd for his burning throne!</li>
  <li>Where is the duke? 'tis he should hear me speak.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ESCALUS</li>
  <li>The duke's in us; and we will hear you speak:</li>
  <li>Look you speak justly.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>Boldly, at least. But, O, poor souls,</li>
  <li class="number">Come you to seek the lamb here of the fox?</li>
  <li>Good night to your redress! Is the duke gone?</li>
  <li>Then is your cause gone too. The duke's unjust,</li>
  <li>Thus to retort your manifest appeal,</li>
  <li>And put your trial in the villain's mouth</li>
  <li class="number">Which here you come to accuse.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIO</li>
  <li>This is the rascal; this is he I spoke of.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ESCALUS</li>
  <li>Why, thou unreverend and unhallow'd friar,</li>
  <li>Is't not enough thou hast suborn'd these women</li>
  <li>To accuse this worthy man, but, in foul mouth</li>
  <li class="number">And in the witness of his proper ear,</li>
  <li>To call him villain? and then to glance from him</li>
  <li>To the duke himself, to tax him with injustice?</li>
  <li>Take him hence; to the rack with him! We'll touse you</li>
  <li>Joint by joint, but we will know his purpose.</li>
  <li class="number">What 'unjust'!</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>Be not so hot; the duke</li>
  <li>Dare no more stretch this finger of mine than he</li>
  <li>Dare rack his own: his subject am I not,</li>
  <li>Nor here provincial. My business in this state</li>
  <li class="number">Made me a looker on here in Vienna,</li>
  <li>Where I have seen corruption boil and bubble</li>
  <li>Till it o'er-run the stew; laws for all faults,</li>
  <li>But faults so countenanced, that the strong statutes</li>
  <li>Stand like the forfeits in a barber's shop,</li>
  <li class="number">As much in mock as mark.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ESCALUS</li>
  <li>Slander to the state! Away with him to prison!</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANGELO</li>
  <li>What can you vouch against him, Signior Lucio?</li>
  <li>Is this the man that you did tell us of?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIO</li>
  <li>'Tis he, my lord. Come hither, goodman baldpate:</li>
  <li class="number">do you know me?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>I remember you, sir, by the sound of your voice: I</li>
  <li>met you at the prison, in the absence of the duke.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIO</li>
  <li>O, did you so? And do you remember what you said of the duke?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>Most notedly, sir.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIO</li>
  <li class="number">Do you so, sir? And was the duke a fleshmonger, a</li>
  <li>fool, and a coward, as you then reported him to be?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>You must, sir, change persons with me, ere you make</li>
  <li>that my report: you, indeed, spoke so of him; and</li>
  <li>much more, much worse.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIO</li>
  <li class="number">O thou damnable fellow! Did not I pluck thee by the</li>
  <li>nose for thy speeches?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>I protest I love the duke as I love myself.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANGELO</li>
  <li>Hark, how the villain would close now, after his</li>
  <li>treasonable abuses!</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ESCALUS</li>
  <li class="number">Such a fellow is not to be talked withal. Away with</li>
  <li>him to prison! Where is the provost? Away with him</li>
  <li>to prison! lay bolts enough upon him: let him</li>
  <li>speak no more. Away with those giglots too, and</li>
  <li>with the other confederate companion!</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li class="number">To Provost  Stay, sir; stay awhile.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANGELO</li>
  <li>What, resists he? Help him, Lucio.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIO</li>
  <li>Come, sir; come, sir; come, sir; foh, sir! Why, you</li>
  <li>bald-pated, lying rascal, you must be hooded, must</li>
  <li>you? Show your knave's visage, with a pox to you!</li>
  <li class="number">show your sheep-biting face, and be hanged an hour!</li>
  <li>Will't not off?</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Pulls off the friar's hood, and discovers DUKE
VINCENTIO</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>Thou art the first knave that e'er madest a duke.</li>
  <li>First, provost, let me bail these gentle three.</li>
  <li class="stage-direction">To LUCIO</li>
  <li>Sneak not away, sir; for the friar and you</li>
  <li class="number">Must have a word anon. Lay hold on him.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIO</li>
  <li>This may prove worse than hanging.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>To ESCALUS  What you have spoke I pardon: sit you down:</li>
  <li>We'll borrow place of him.</li>
  <li class="stage-direction">To ANGELO</li>
  <li>Sir, by your leave.</li>
  <li class="number">Hast thou or word, or wit, or impudence,</li>
  <li>That yet can do thee office? If thou hast,</li>
  <li>Rely upon it till my tale be heard,</li>
  <li>And hold no longer out.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANGELO</li>
  <li>O my dread lord,</li>
  <li class="number">I should be guiltier than my guiltiness,</li>
  <li>To think I can be undiscernible,</li>
  <li>When I perceive your grace, like power divine,</li>
  <li>Hath look'd upon my passes. Then, good prince,</li>
  <li>No longer session hold upon my shame,</li>
  <li class="number">But let my trial be mine own confession:</li>
  <li>Immediate sentence then and sequent death</li>
  <li>Is all the grace I beg.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>Come hither, Mariana.</li>
  <li>Say, wast thou e'er contracted to this woman?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANGELO</li>
  <li class="number">I was, my lord.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>Go take her hence, and marry her instantly.</li>
  <li>Do you the office, friar; which consummate,</li>
  <li>Return him here again. Go with him, provost.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Exeunt ANGELO, MARIANA, FRIAR PETER and Provost</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ESCALUS</li>
  <li>My lord, I am more amazed at his dishonour</li>
  <li class="number">Than at the strangeness of it.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>Come hither, Isabel.</li>
  <li>Your friar is now your prince: as I was then</li>
  <li>Advertising and holy to your business,</li>
  <li>Not changing heart with habit, I am still</li>
  <li class="number">Attorney'd at your service.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ISABELLA</li>
  <li>O, give me pardon,</li>
  <li>That I, your vassal, have employ'd and pain'd</li>
  <li>Your unknown sovereignty!</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>You are pardon'd, Isabel:</li>
  <li class="number">And now, dear maid, be you as free to us.</li>
  <li>Your brother's death, I know, sits at your heart;</li>
  <li>And you may marvel why I obscured myself,</li>
  <li>Labouring to save his life, and would not rather</li>
  <li>Make rash remonstrance of my hidden power</li>
  <li class="number">Than let him so be lost. O most kind maid,</li>
  <li>It was the swift celerity of his death,</li>
  <li>Which I did think with slower foot came on,</li>
  <li>That brain'd my purpose. But, peace be with him!</li>
  <li>That life is better life, past fearing death,</li>
  <li class="number">Than that which lives to fear: make it your comfort,</li>
  <li>So happy is your brother.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ISABELLA</li>
  <li>I do, my lord.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Re-enter ANGELO, MARIANA, FRIAR PETER, and Provost</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>For this new-married man approaching here,</li>
  <li>Whose salt imagination yet hath wrong'd</li>
  <li class="number">Your well defended honour, you must pardon</li>
  <li>For Mariana's sake: but as he adjudged your brother —  </li>
  <li>Being criminal, in double violation</li>
  <li>Of sacred chastity and of promise-breach</li>
  <li>Thereon dependent, for your brother's life —  </li>
  <li class="number">The very mercy of the law cries out</li>
  <li>Most audible, even from his proper tongue,</li>
  <li>'An Angelo for Claudio, death for death!'</li>
  <li>Haste still pays haste, and leisure answers leisure;</li>
  <li>Like doth quit like, and MEASURE still FOR MEASURE.</li>
  <li class="number">Then, Angelo, thy fault's thus manifested;</li>
  <li>Which, though thou wouldst deny, denies thee vantage.</li>
  <li>We do condemn thee to the very block</li>
  <li>Where Claudio stoop'd to death, and with like haste.</li>
  <li>Away with him!</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">MARIANA</li>
  <li class="number">O my most gracious lord,</li>
  <li>I hope you will not mock me with a husband.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>It is your husband mock'd you with a husband.</li>
  <li>Consenting to the safeguard of your honour,</li>
  <li>I thought your marriage fit; else imputation,</li>
  <li class="number">For that he knew you, might reproach your life</li>
  <li>And choke your good to come; for his possessions,</li>
  <li>Although by confiscation they are ours,</li>
  <li>We do instate and widow you withal,</li>
  <li>To buy you a better husband.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">MARIANA</li>
  <li class="number">O my dear lord,</li>
  <li>I crave no other, nor no better man.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>Never crave him; we are definitive.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">MARIANA</li>
  <li>Gentle my liege —  </li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Kneeling</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>You do but lose your labour.</li>
  <li class="number">Away with him to death!</li>
  <li class="stage-direction">To LUCIO</li>
  <li>Now, sir, to you.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">MARIANA</li>
  <li>O my good lord! Sweet Isabel, take my part;</li>
  <li>Lend me your knees, and all my life to come</li>
  <li>I'll lend you all my life to do you service.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li class="number">Against all sense you do importune her:</li>
  <li>Should she kneel down in mercy of this fact,</li>
  <li>Her brother's ghost his paved bed would break,</li>
  <li>And take her hence in horror.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">MARIANA</li>
  <li>Isabel,</li>
  <li class="number">Sweet Isabel, do yet but kneel by me;</li>
  <li>Hold up your hands, say nothing; I'll speak all.</li>
  <li>They say, best men are moulded out of faults;</li>
  <li>And, for the most, become much more the better</li>
  <li>For being a little bad: so may my husband.</li>
  <li class="number">O Isabel, will you not lend a knee?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>He dies for Claudio's death.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ISABELLA</li>
  <li>Most bounteous sir,</li>
  <li class="stage-direction">Kneeling</li>
  <li>Look, if it please you, on this man condemn'd,</li>
  <li>As if my brother lived: I partly think</li>
  <li class="number">A due sincerity govern'd his deeds,</li>
  <li>Till he did look on me: since it is so,</li>
  <li>Let him not die. My brother had but justice,</li>
  <li>In that he did the thing for which he died:</li>
  <li>For Angelo,</li>
  <li class="number">His act did not o'ertake his bad intent,</li>
  <li>And must be buried but as an intent</li>
  <li>That perish'd by the way: thoughts are no subjects;</li>
  <li>Intents but merely thoughts.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">MARIANA</li>
  <li>Merely, my lord.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li class="number">Your suit's unprofitable; stand up, I say.</li>
  <li>I have bethought me of another fault.</li>
  <li>Provost, how came it Claudio was beheaded</li>
  <li>At an unusual hour?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Provost</li>
  <li>It was commanded so.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li class="number">Had you a special warrant for the deed?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Provost</li>
  <li>No, my good lord; it was by private message.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>For which I do discharge you of your office:</li>
  <li>Give up your keys.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Provost</li>
  <li>Pardon me, noble lord:</li>
  <li class="number">I thought it was a fault, but knew it not;</li>
  <li>Yet did repent me, after more advice;</li>
  <li>For testimony whereof, one in the prison,</li>
  <li>That should by private order else have died,</li>
  <li>I have reserved alive.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li class="number">What's he?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Provost</li>
  <li>His name is Barnardine.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>I would thou hadst done so by Claudio.</li>
  <li>Go fetch him hither; let me look upon him.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Exit Provost</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ESCALUS</li>
  <li>I am sorry, one so learned and so wise</li>
  <li class="number">As you, Lord Angelo, have still appear'd,</li>
  <li>Should slip so grossly, both in the heat of blood.</li>
  <li>And lack of temper'd judgment afterward.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANGELO</li>
  <li>I am sorry that such sorrow I procure:</li>
  <li>And so deep sticks it in my penitent heart</li>
  <li class="number">That I crave death more willingly than mercy;</li>
  <li>'Tis my deserving, and I do entreat it.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Re-enter Provost, with BARNARDINE, CLAUDIO muffled,
and JULIET</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>Which is that Barnardine?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Provost</li>
  <li>This, my lord.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>There was a friar told me of this man.</li>
  <li class="number">Sirrah, thou art said to have a stubborn soul.</li>
  <li>That apprehends no further than this world,</li>
  <li>And squarest thy life according. Thou'rt condemn'd:</li>
  <li>But, for those earthly faults, I quit them all;</li>
  <li>And pray thee take this mercy to provide</li>
  <li class="number">For better times to come. Friar, advise him;</li>
  <li>I leave him to your hand. What muffled fellow's that?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Provost</li>
  <li>This is another prisoner that I saved.</li>
  <li>Who should have died when Claudio lost his head;</li>
  <li>As like almost to Claudio as himself.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Unmuffles CLAUDIO</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li class="number">To ISABELLA  If he be like your brother, for his sake</li>
  <li>Is he pardon'd; and, for your lovely sake,</li>
  <li>Give me your hand and say you will be mine.</li>
  <li>He is my brother too: but fitter time for that.</li>
  <li>By this Lord Angelo perceives he's safe;</li>
  <li class="number">Methinks I see a quickening in his eye.</li>
  <li>Well, Angelo, your evil quits you well:</li>
  <li>Look that you love your wife; her worth worth yours.</li>
  <li>I find an apt remission in myself;</li>
  <li>And yet here's one in place I cannot pardon.</li>
  <li class="stage-direction">To LUCIO</li>
  <li class="number">You, sirrah, that knew me for a fool, a coward,</li>
  <li>One all of luxury, an ass, a madman;</li>
  <li>Wherein have I so deserved of you,</li>
  <li>That you extol me thus?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIO</li>
  <li>'Faith, my lord. I spoke it but according to the</li>
  <li class="number">trick. If you will hang me for it, you may; but I</li>
  <li>had rather it would please you I might be whipt.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>Whipt first, sir, and hanged after.</li>
  <li>Proclaim it, provost, round about the city.</li>
  <li>Is any woman wrong'd by this lewd fellow,</li>
  <li class="number">As I have heard him swear himself there's one</li>
  <li>Whom he begot with child, let her appear,</li>
  <li>And he shall marry her: the nuptial finish'd,</li>
  <li>Let him be whipt and hang'd.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIO</li>
  <li>I beseech your highness, do not marry me to a whore.</li>
  <li class="number">Your highness said even now, I made you a duke:</li>
  <li>good my lord, do not recompense me in making me a cuckold.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>Upon mine honour, thou shalt marry her.</li>
  <li>Thy slanders I forgive; and therewithal</li>
  <li>Remit thy other forfeits. Take him to prison;</li>
  <li class="number">And see our pleasure herein executed.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIO</li>
  <li>Marrying a punk, my lord, is pressing to death,</li>
  <li>whipping, and hanging.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE VINCENTIO</li>
  <li>Slandering a prince deserves it.</li>
  <li class="stage-direction">Exit Officers with LUCIO</li>
  <li>She, Claudio, that you wrong'd, look you restore.</li>
  <li class="number">Joy to you, Mariana! Love her, Angelo:</li>
  <li>I have confess'd her and I know her virtue.</li>
  <li>Thanks, good friend Escalus, for thy much goodness:</li>
  <li>There's more behind that is more gratulate.</li>
  <li>Thanks, provost, for thy care and secrecy:</li>
  <li class="number">We shill employ thee in a worthier place.</li>
  <li>Forgive him, Angelo, that brought you home</li>
  <li>The head of Ragozine for Claudio's:</li>
  <li>The offence pardons itself. Dear Isabel,</li>
  <li>I have a motion much imports your good;</li>
  <li class="number">Whereto if you'll a willing ear incline,</li>
  <li>What's mine is yours and what is yours is mine.</li>
  <li>So, bring us to our palace; where we'll show</li>
  <li>What's yet behind, that's meet you all should know.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Exeunt</div>

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